Page:The Harveian oration, 1875 (IA b22314611).pdf/36

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knowledged that the heart was without the sense of touch; for the youth never knew when we touched his heart, except by the sight, or the sensation he had through the external integument.” Thus did Royalty in the least fortunate of its representatives, and science in one of the worthiest of her sons, mutually do honour to each other; leaving behind them an example which, let us hope, will never fail to influence our Kings and Philosophers in days to come. Whatever the faults of Charles the First, neglect of science is certainly not to be numbered among them.

The circulation of the blood in parts remote from the heart Harvey demonstrates by the twofold process of describing the exact forms and positions of the valves of the veins, and making a series of simple experiments on the veins of the forearm, swollen by the ligature of the upper arm applied as in bleeding.

As to the valves of the veins, neither Silvius, their discoverer, nor succeeding anatomists, rightly understood their use. But Harvey, by careful dissection, and passing a probe either way, arrives at the conclusion that "the valves are solely made and instituted lest the blood should pass from the

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