Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/16



MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN, The officials fellows and friends of this college assemble to-day, as we and our predecessors have assembled year by year for two-and-a-half centuries, to commemorate the services which William Harvey has rendered to mankind, and in order to keep alive in our own minds the wise counsels which he addressed to us, the memory of which he desired us ever to renew at the festival which he founded. We are to honour our great profession, to continue in mutual love and affection among ourselves, and to search and to study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment in order to prevent suffering and to ameliorate human life.

In commencing the pleasing duty which the kindness of our President has placed in my hands it is needful to comply with the desire of our founder that we commemorate the names of