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THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1903

self, for in the dedication of his work De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis, in 1628, "to his very dear friend, Doctor Argent, the excellent and accomplished President of the Royal College of Physicians, and to other learned Physicians, his most esteemed colleagues," he concludes thus, "Farewell, most worthy Doctors, and think kindly of your Anatomist, William Harvey." In the course of the Introduction to the same work, the author appeals to the similarity of structure of the two ventricles as being in favour of their pursuing a similar function, which was contrary to prevailing ideas. And, lastly, the final chapter of his "anatomical disquisition" shows how "the motion and circulation of the blood are confirmed from the particulars apparent in the structure of the heart, and from those things which dissection unfolds." "Harvey's method of enquiry was that which may be called the purely and strictly physiological method. Observing carefully the phenomena of the living body, he sought in the first place, in the arrangements of the structures concerned in the facts of anatomy, for suggestions as to how the phenomena might be explained. It is this aspect of his method which brings into striking light the value of the work of Vesalius, and of the school of Vesalius, as the necessary preparation for Harvey's labours.