LONDON: C. J. CLAY AND SONS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE GLASGOW: 50 Wellington Street [Illustration: Publisher Crest] LEIPZIG: F. A. Brockhaus NEW YORK: The Macmillan Company BOMBAY: Macmillan & Co., Limited I. I-em-hotep and Ancient Egyptian Medicine II. Prevention of Valvular Disease THE HARVEIAN ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS ON JUNE 21, 1904 BY RICHARD CATON, M.D., F.R.C.P. EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL; CONSULTING PHYSICIAN, ROYAL INFIRMARY With Seven Illustrations PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF LIVERPOOL LONDON: C. J. CLAY AND SONS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE 1904 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO Sir WILLIAM SELBY CHURCH, Bart., K.C.B., M.D. THE PRESIDENT AND TO THE FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON THIS ORATION IS DEDICATED WITH MUCH RESPECT THE HARVEIAN ORATION 1904 Mr. President and Gentlemen, The officials fellows and friends of this college assemble to-day, as we and our predecessors have assembled year by year for two-and-a-half centuries, to commemorate the services which William Harvey has rendered to mankind, and in order to keep alive in our own minds the wise counsels which he addressed to us, the memory of which he desired us ever to renew at the festival which he founded. We are to honour our great profession, to continue in mutual love and affection among ourselves, and to search and to study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment in order to prevent suffering and to ameliorate human life.