Page:The Harveian oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 26, 1889 (IA b22361285).pdf/19

 believe anything whatever, unless good reason could be given for the adoption of the creed; and so in the seventeenth century our chains fell.

While purely experimental science made enormous advances after this great era, medicine by no means proceeded with equal stride.

With regard to the great discovery of Harvey, it may, indeed, be said that whether we regard pathology as shown us in the solids, or as it has advanced by the light of a revived and philosophic humoral pathology, it is only since the commencement of the nineteenth century that we have used our knowledge of the circulation to assist our progress.

Little was to be hoped from Harvey’s discovery while the medical profession was fully imbued with the spirit of Galen’s writings, when our books spoke of hot and cold remedies, and the cardinal qualities formed matter for grave consideration among the learned in physic; and this was the case long after Harvey’s death. Hippocrates had adopted a method of inquiry far too laborious to please when contrasted with the wild system of hasty generalisation practised by those who followed him; and this taken in connection with the