Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/62

 Nor is this our only loss. Harvey refers on many occasions, as to a completed work, to his ‘Medical Observations,’ and introduces, especially in his ‘Exercitatio de Partu,’ many illustrative cases which he says he extracts from it. These cases are remarkable for their clearness, brevity, and for the aptness with which they bear upon their subject; and, as far as the purpose for which they are adduced admits of it, they show also much homely common sense, and much practical medical skill.

We may the more deplore the loss of these ‘Observations,’ since they were by no means limited to one department of medicine, but seem to have been very extensive in their scope, while their record appears to have been specially a labour of love to Harvey. He refers to them in his second letter to Riolanus, when speaking of the influence of the mind upon the body:

‘But here,’ says he, ‘I come upon a field where I might roam freely and give myself up to speculation. And, indeed, such a flood of light and truth breaks in upon me here, occasion offers of explaining so many problems, of resolving so many doubts, of discovering the