Page:The Harveian oration, 1875 (IA b22314611).pdf/7

President and Fellows,

More than two centuries ago (it was some time in the month of July, 1656, nine years therefore before the great Plague, and ten before the great Fire of London), the old College of Physicians, at Amen Corner, was the scene of a most touching ceremony. In the library of the "noble building " which he had erected at his own cost, furnished, supplied with books objects of curiosity and surgical instruments, and three years previously presented to the College, William Harvey met the Fellows, his colleagues friends and pupils, for the last time. Bent beneath the weight of nearly fourscore years, worn by repeated attacks of a painful malady, "not only far stricken in years," but "afflicted with more and more indifferent health," conscious that his life must be drawing to a close