The life work of Professor James Spence : the Harveian oration for 1886, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, April 12, 1886.

  • Macdougall, John Aymers.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life work of Professor James Spence : the Harveian oration for 1886, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, April 12, 1886. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    THE LIFE WORK OF PROFESSOR JAMES SPENCE THE HARVEIAN ORATION. Gentlemen—Fellow Harveians,—My first duty is to thank you very warmly for the distinction you have conferred upon me in electing me to the office I have to fill to-day. It is an honourable office by reason of the brilliancy and the great gifts of the men who have been my predecessors, and by the distinguished position of many in the audience to whom it is my privilege now to speak. Our meeting commemorates—as our Society by its existence is meant to commemorate—the name of the immortal Harvey, a name which, although nearly three centuries have elapsed since he who bore it lived, and laboured and died, is still cherished by the profession to which he belonged as that of one of the most distin- guished of her sons. And this is not to be wondered at when we call to remefnbrance (as it has been so often and so well told to you) the story of his life, of the times in which he was born, of the dark beliefs of those days, of the difficulties with which he had to contend, and of the great work it was given him to do,—a work which has since proved the grand foundation upon which much of our best knowledge has risen, and the record of which will ever be held in grateful reverence while medicine remains a science. It is not my object, then (by such words as are mine), to endea- vour to keep fresh the glory of a name which will never grow dim. Such effort were needless on my part—Harvey’s example, Harvey’s method, and Harvey’s teaching will ever remain as models of what is best and highest in our art. Time has proved this, for time is surely the strongest test of reality. As I have already said, his story has been often told, its reiter- ation has done much to render to us, the far-off generations, his personality and his influence strong and pronounced ; but it has done more, for as “ the history of the world is largely the biography of great men, so is the life of Harvey one of the chiefest chapters in the history of medicine,—a history with which each one of us should have more or less acquaintance. Further, there can be no doubt that as the great men of a nation have always done much to create the nations they represent, so in like manner men such as Harvey may be said to be the creators and the best representatives of the profession to which we belong.