Page:The advancement of science by experimental research - the Harveian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 27th, 1883 (IA b24869958).pdf/31

27 taken the most active part in the civil contest of the time and had placed himself on the pinnacle of power, I refer to Oliver Cromwell. The views of Harvey were regarded as extravagant, and truly they might well be so esteemed, for they were in direct opposition to many views that had been regarded as established truths. It had been supposed that the blood flowed from the larger veins into the smaller; Harvey proved that the reverse was the case, and that the blood reaching the smaller vessels from the arteries re- turned from smaller venous branches to the larger trunks till the heart was reached. He did not know of the true anastomoses of the vessels; that remained for Malpighi, who was born in the year that Harvey's work was published, and who in 1661 saw the capillary circulation in the frog. What Harvey had attained was gained by direct observation, wherein he failed, was in leaving this safe path for one of hypothesis; but it is pleasant to regard him as a man of earnest religious thought; and Cowley writes,