Page:The rise of physiology in England - the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1895 (IA b24974778).pdf/10

 during the years that have elapsed since Harvey's institution of it by some of the most illustrious Fellows on our roll-by Garth (1697), Arbuthnot (1727), and Akenside (1759); by Mead (1723), Heberden (1750), and Warren (1768), not to mention others of more recent date, men whose names will ever remain fresh in the history of the literature and medicine of our country. I have no claim to be asso- ciated with these great names, nor with the many learned and eloquent men who have addressed you in recent years, and I should have shrunk from attempting the task your favour has imposed on me had I not felt that in asking me to undertake it you were mindful of the position which it is my lot to hold in connection with the great hospital to which the immortal Harvey was thirty-four years physician, in which he exercised an influence over its governing body that remains to this day, and where his memory is yet held in reverential remembrance.

I wish it were possible for me to bring forward from the records of St. Bartholomew's Hospital any new facts illustrating either Harvey's life or works; but many years ago