Harveian Oration ON OLD AND NEW VIEWS ON THE TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION: Delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, October 18th, 1911
Authors: C. T. Williams
Journal: BMJ (1911)

Two hlundred and fifty-five years have elapsed since Williain Harvey inistituted this Festival, directing that a Fellow of the College shall be appointed to m-lake an oration in commuemoration of anl the benefactors of the sai(d College " with an exhortati to anl Fellows and Members of the said Collew to sarc and study out tlle secrets of Nature by wayt exIent; anid also for tllc honour of the profesao toinue in miiutual love and affection among themseIeyi, without wlhich neither the dignity of time ColUe csi be peservecd nor yet particular mien receive that benflt by their adm-issioni inito the College wIih they might expect, ever rememibering that ' CoorA re' parvae crescunt, discordifIt magnae dilabuntiL"' Such werds of Harvey, and sutchi are ileC precepts -whlich t} has, to time best of its ability, endea- voured to S.ey for ceturies.We have hadamwly distinguished benefactors, and tlhese have been duly celebrated in the various oratiois, but as Haa'vey, by his imimnnortal.discovery has outslhone all tlhe ot luminaries, and as lie wvas tIme foun(lder of tlle Jn1tiptiunm fime numerous orations have beeli, for time most part, dieated to the celebration and expositioln of his miangmsst labours and achievements.When we bear in i 1. numbers and the distinction of the past orators and ie many periods of history in whiclh tlley lived, it will be obvioils to all here to-day that it is inmpossible for miie to say anything regardilng tIme discovery of time circuilationi whihl has not beeni already said; for again and again the Haroeian orators have eloqXuently set fortlh its originality and importance, the steps by wlmicim it 'was attainied, alnd the 'work of previous labourers in time same field.Wlien you, Sir, appointe(ld nc Harveialn orator anid con1- fbried on mie time highest h-olnouir you liave to bestow in tlis College, you acconipanied the command -with a desire ihiat, after due and proper reference to the work of our tr-t benefactor, I shouild dwell nmore particularly omi the tlubject to which I hlave devoted a large portion of mmmy life .-Lnamely,tuberculosis--and I w\ill eindeavour to carry-out Cyour wvishes to the best of m-1y ability.First, to commply witlh mniy orders, let us briefly con- ernplate the state of knowledge colncernimlig time cir- eulation. of the blood0 before Harvey coinmmenced Iiis estigations.Di8coveryV of thme Circulation of the Blood.. Aristotle liad taught that in man and time huigher iiuals the blood was elaborated froom time food in time re, whence it was carried to the heart and distributed rougli time veins over the body.His ruccessors of time xleandrine School of Medicine, Erasistratus anid Hero- ;*ilus, furtlher, amplified hiis system, and explained that while time veins carried blood from tlle heart to the f*enmbers, the arteries carried a subtle kind of air or *irit.According to Dr. Pye-Smitlh's adumiirable epitome tie subject, only two clhanges lhad been made for time Vfractical physician in timis theory of tlie circulationi betweemm tUe Clhristian era aimd the sixteenth century.Galeni had discovered that the arteries were not, as theeir name implies, immerely air tubes, but that timey coll- taimmed blouol as wvell as vital air or spirit, and it had been gradtually ascertainied that time nerves (viupa), whlichl arose fuoun tIme brain and conveyedI animal spirits to time body, were (lifferelit from the temudons and( sineews (m'4Upa) whicli tl talh themiselves to bones. 4 ORATION.r TIIF.lBTTTrn.