Page:The Harveian oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 26, 1889 (IA b22361285).pdf/22

 change, might have been afforded us had we been in total ignorance of all that Harvey has written on the circulation of the blood and the motion of the heart; and the same may be said of much that has been done relating to the morbid states of many internal organs. If we go back to the time of Cullen, it clearly was regarded as something against which it was well to warn the student. That physician wrote the following memorable words in the year 1784:—

‘The knowledge of the circulation did indeed necessarily lead to the consideration as well as to a clearer view of the organic system in animal bodies, which again led to the application of the mechanical philosophy towards explaining the phenomena of the animal economy, and it was applied accordingly, and continued till very lately to be the fashionable mode of reasoning on the subject.

‘Such reasoning, indeed, must still in several respects continue to be applied, but it would be easy to show that it neither could, nor ever can be applied to any great extent in explaining the