Page:The healing art in its historic and prophetic aspects - the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Oct. 19, 1885 (IA b21908199).pdf/12

 the Controller Calonne, who, when asked by Queen Marie Antoinette to undertake a duty which her Majesty con- sidered to be difficult, replied, 'If it be only difficult, it is done if it be impossible, it shall be done (se fera).' In the spirit which suggested this answer I am here; and I crave the indulgence of my hearers whilst I address myself to my task.

For more than twenty years I have listened with atten- tion to successive Harveian Orations, and I have read with care those which have been published during the same period. I have scarcely known which most to admire the patient research on which these orations have been founded, the philosophic spirit which has breathed through them, or the eloquent and impressive manner in which the conclusions of the authors have been laid before the College. Some of my predecessors have reminded us of Harvey's personal history and surroundings. By others we have been told what was known of the circulation of the blood before his time; and his method of research and his calm inductive reasoning have been admirably por- trayed. By others, again, Harvey's claims to originality in relation to his great discovery have been fully set forth, and have been established with a certainty which can never be disturbed. In one of these brilliant discourses, his observations on Generation found an able and fitting exponent. On another occasion his philosophy, more especially with reference to the doctrine of final causes, was most ably discussed. On another, the bearing of his discovery upon the improved knowledge of therapeutics and the better practice of medicine which have resulted from it was fully described; and the great philosopher was regarded in the light of a physician as well as in that of a physiologist; while we seem still to listen to the oration of last year, in which Harvey was represented as having anticipated some of the great discoveries which mark the