Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/59

 skill of the artificer revealed by his researches as it had never been before; but of the practical result of those researches he saw but little; and could never have imagined with what accuracy we can now, thanks to his labours, ascertain the nature and seat of disease in each of the four cavities of the heart itself, presage its course, and even where we cannot cure, obtain at least an euthanasia for our patient, and rob death of half its terrors by depriving it of more than half its suffering.

Harvey’s merits as a discoverer have thrown into the shade his claims to be remembered as a physician. It may be doubted, however, whether if we had adequate means of forming a judgment, we should not find him entitled to occupy a far higher place than is commonly assigned him, on no better grounds than are furnished by a few depreciating remarks of Aubrey. He understood the value of morbid anatomy as the only sure ground on which