Page:The Hunterian Oration 1832.djvu/18

14 By one blow, as it were, he annihilated a mass of ignorance, the continuance of which would have been an absolute prohibition to the origin of any thing" like science, in the investigation of the vital functions, and of the perfect and imperfect conditions of the human body. William Harvey then most unquestionably deserves all the veneration, with which his name will ever be mentioned in the pages of history. I will say more—he is decidedly entitled to greater notice, than he has usually received; because some of his merit has been very much forgotten in the contemplation of that of the discovery of the circulation; and, while he has been amply praised for this, all the valuable and original matter, contained in his Treatise on Generation, has seldom obtained the degree of attention which it can justly claim.

But, if this illustrious man has the merit of having made, perhaps, the greatest of all discoveries affecting medical science, and, of course, the health and happiness of society, John Hunter is an object of not less celebrity