Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/46

 was thus disposed of which had been built in part (as so many false theories are) on incorrect observation, though it rested in part also on over hasty inference from a condition which really exists in the fœtus. And lastly, and beyond all other points in importance, the smaller, or pulmonary circulation, was discovered and correctly expounded, though some erroneous hypotheses, the figments of mere fancy, the ghosts of old traditions, still hung about and obscured the simple truth.

To obtain these results so briefly catalogued many most able and accomplished men had spent their lives with no other reward than this, that in after years young students of anatomy should know the Ductus Arteriosus by its synonym of Ductus Botalli, or should learn to designate the little sesamoid bodies at the edge of the semilunar valves of the aorta and pulmonary artery as the Corpora Arantii, without for one moment asking who Botalli was, or what years of patient study, such as at this day we know nothing of, were needed before Arantius made those discoveries which have preserved his name, and little more than his name, from utter forgetfulness.