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 in relation to vivisection. Therefore I take upon myself the responsibility of expressing here, on their behalf as well as my own, what I believe to be the true sentiments of the 40,000 individual practitioners, with comparatively few exceptions, that we respectfully decline to be thus separated from those who practise vivisection; that we range ourselves on their side absolutely and unreservedly; that we deeply sympathise with them in the undeserved attacks made upon them, while fully sharing their responsibilities, and taking upon ourselves any opprobrium or abuse showered so freely upon them; and that we cordially acknowledge and are truly grateful for the incalculable services which they have already rendered to medical science and practice, and the inestimable benefits which they have thus conferred on humanity.

There can be no doubt, as the late Dr. Barclay said in a previous Harveian Oration, that Harvey regarded the College of Physicians as "the great centre from which the light of medical science and skill was to shed its lustre over England; he hoped that the College was to be the teacher of her people, the adviser of her rulers, and the training-school of her medical men." It was a long time, however, before his hopeful anticipations were in any degree realised; and in the same oration there is a scathing