Harvey and his claims as a discoverer : a lecture, delivered at Folkestone on the three-hundredth anniversary of his birth (April 1st, 1578) / by Robert C. Jenkins.

Robert Charles Jenkins

Date:: 1878

Credit: Harvey and his claims as a discoverer : a lecture, delivered at Folkestone on the three-hundredth anniversary of his birth (April 1st, 1578) / by Robert C. Jenkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$liis name and his influence to the Harvey Memorial), ''to dwell on the greatness of that truth which Harvey gave us in his discovery of the motion of the blood, by which he cast out of our bodies those mysterious animal spirits and vital spirits which still rise up continually in our language, and are even still said to make us happy or sad, and to determine our health or our death.These vital spirits are declared by Harvey to be the common subterfuge of ignorance.” For mere sciolists,” he adds, when they are unable to assign a reason, immediately affirm that the phenomenon results from the spirits, and intro- duce them as the efficient cause in every case, just as bad poets, to explain their fable and to bring about its catastrophe, intro- duce a divine operation.^^ Every one of tliose for whom tlie anticipation, in any degTee, of Harvey^s discovery is claimed, believed firmly in these vital spirits’^ and the fact that they did so, is conclusive as against their claim to anticipate the work of oiir great discoverer. The learned Dr. De Back, a convert to Harvey’s views, in a work which he dedicated to him in his old age, describes the opinion as a '• decantata et ah omni fcvo Tccepta dc s])iritibu8 opinio^^ V. A fifth disadvantage under which anatomical science laboured until the time of Harvey, was the absence of all the means of minute observation. Even Harvey himself pos- sessed only the rude appliance of the magnifying glass, the microscope being then unknown. With this imperfect instru- ment he began his examination of insects and of embryo life; making use of the magnifying glass (as he writes) for the dis- cernment of minute objects— Ope perspicilli ad res minimas discerncndasr Leuwenhoek,bythe introduction of the microscope, Avas enabled at the close of the 17th century to solve many problems which Harvey had but partially investigated, and the advantage Avhich more modern physiologists have derived from the perfection of the new instrument can hardly be estimated. AVe might almost assert that every stage of perfection Avhich the microscope has reached, has marked a like stage of perfection in anatomical research. Such Avere the difficulties Avliich stood in the Avay of Harvey when he entered upon his lifelong A\’ork—and Ave cannot truly appreciate either the courage Avith Avhich he met them, or the Avisdom and power by Avhich he overcame them, Avithout seeing them as far as possible in their full proportions. AVe appreciate an Athanasius Avhen he stood alone against the Avorld, for the figure is a more conspicuous one, and the vast array of tlie liostile forces is more clearly seen ; but the unanimity of the medical Avorld, and of the Avorld it governed, was not less complete or less energetic against$