Page:The Harveian oration 1903.djvu/26

 complete and precise is of itself sufficient to furnish a physiology or knowledge of function, since in the earlier days to which I have referred, when the facts of gross anatomy were well and widely known, most erroneous and grotesque views were held as to the action and uses of the various organs—as indeed the history of the explanations offered for the circulation of the blood before Harvey's time sufficiently testifies. Nor do I fail to admit that much physiology, more especially in recent times, has become known even with considerable approach to exactness without a corresponding knowledge of its structural basis.

The discovery and proof of the circulation, not only by the actual positive knowledge which it furnished but also by the methods by which it was arrived at, did much to dispel the fanciful and absurd views held as to the other functions of the body, and thus became the starting point of Modern Physiology. But, as I propose to show by a few examples, the full benefit of Harvey's work, and indeed its applicability in explaining those other functions, was proportional to the extent of the accurate information possessed in respect to the structure of the organs by which these processes are carried out; and as fresh anatomical knowledge was forthcoming so did truer conceptions of the living activities develop