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THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1903
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course being thus entered upon, the work was continued by the contemporaries, pupils and successors of Vesalius, chief amongst whom were Servetus, Realdus Columbus, Fallopius, Cæsalpinus and Fabricius—the last named being professor at Padua, whose instruction Harvey himself followed for nearly four years after quitting Cambridge in 1598. 'There, whilst perfecting himself in anatomy, he became more fully acquainted with such views as were held upon the circulation, modifications for the most part of the Galenic doctrine, with such objections thereto and glimpses of the truth as had been foreshadowed by Vesalius, and still more even by Servetus, who seems at least to have had some idea of the real nature of the pulmonary circulation.

For the first few years after his return to London Harvey appeared to have pursued his anatomical work, and especially the dissection of animals. Becoming a Fellow of this College in 1607 and in the next year a Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, he was in 1615 appointed Lumleian Lecturer, the fourth holder of the office. The subject of the Lectures was Surgery, supplemented by public dissections so arranged as to form series of courses extending over six years. But it was as an anatomist that Harvey evidently regarded him-