19
velocity, as he takes the very lowest discharge he can conceive—namely, one scruple, so as to he within indisputable limits. But when he had taken his higher limit, he calculates that if the amount be half an ounce, not less than 41 lb. 8 oz. would pass through in half an hour; and if it be one ounce he says the quantity would he 83 lb. 4 oz. He leaves, however, the actual amount to be hereafter settled by the experiments he has made, he says, with reference to this point. Now, even with the conviction of the truth of the circulation, he may well have been staggered at this enormous velocity. But he does not hesitate to accept the result. We now know the circulation is much quicker even than this last. Think how many men, when they got a glimpse of this rapidity, would have said, “That is impossible; there is some blunder.” Harvey kept to his facts, and had faith in them, just as Edward Jenner, hearing the story that hundreds had heard before him, and had
