Page:The Harveian oration 1903.djvu/22

 but if possible greater in being the starting-point of physiology and as such of a scientific pathology, it was from the anatomist's point of view that he came to enter upon the inquiry which was so fruitful in result. That a sound physiology is essentially dependent upon an accurate knowledge of anatomy was as well understood by Harvey as it is at the present day. "No one," said he, "indeed has ever rightly ascertained the use or function of a part who has not examined its structure, situation, connection by means of vessels, and other accidents in various animals, and carefully weighed and considered all he has seen."

It is further to be remembered that in the early part of the seventeenth century, anatomy was a science that, at least so far as the human body was concerned, had reached a very considerable degree of advancement. 'The teaching of Galen, who first properly appreciated the importance of physiology, full of error as it was, that had held sway for 1,400 years, was giving way to the more accurate work of Vesalius. His book, Fabrica Humani Corporis, published in 1543, and his teaching at Padua, marked the beginning of a new era in biological science, furnishing the account of the structure of the body as a basis upon which a precise physiology was alone possible, and from which a rational pathology and medicine could alone develop. The true