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    ' This tract / said Dr . Smith , * was written with extreme simplicity , clearness , and perspicuity , and has been justly characterised as one of the most admirable examples of a series of arguments deduced from observation and experiment that ever appeared on any subject . * * * How many bodies were killed , how many wounded , the interior of how many were exposed by accident , in the chase , at the altar , and

    yet the fact of the circulation of the blood escaped the observation of generation after generation , for century after century , until two hundred years ago . In the progress by which man has arrived at hia present knowledge of the universe , nothing is more remarkable than the fact that it is only for the last two centuries that he has understood the blood in his own body , and in the bodies of other animals , to be in motion . If we try to imagine what that science of medicine

    could have been , which took no account of a fact on which , as a basis , the whole fabric of certain physiology must rest , we shall be prepared for what its history exhibits , the bewilderment and the weakness of human reason , in attempts to explain and to form theories while a fatal error was mixed with all its suppositions . I have said that nothing is more remarkable than that the circulation of the blood should not have been discovered until two hundred years ago . I

    ought to except the manner in which the announcement of the discovery was received by the public of that age . For eight years did the illustrious Harvey labour unceasingly to mature and complete his proof . During this period , without doubt , he sometimes endeavoured in imagination to trace the effect which the stupendous fact , to the knowledge of which he had attained , would have on the progress of his favourite science . And he sometimes , perhaps , fondly

    hoped that the labour he was spending in bringing to light a fact which would confer inestimable benefit on his fellow-beings , would at least secure to him their confidence , and make them look upon him , in some degree , as their benefactor . No ! not a single convert did he make ; nothing but contumely did he gain ; nothing but injury did he receive . The little practice that he had as a physician , declined . He was too speculative ; he was theoretical ; he was not practical .

    This was the view taken by his friends ; and his enemies , ( for what enlightened and benevolent man is there whose intelligence and benevolence carry him out of the beaten track of speculation and of action , that has not enemies ?) oh , what a torrent of abuse did they pour down upon him for having called in question the revered authority of the ancients—for having advanced new doctrines tending to subvert the credit of the Scriptures—doctrines which , if their

    progress were not checked at once , would undermine the very foundations of morality and religion . Slow as mankind have hitherto been in discovering their true benefactors , whether as relates to persona or to institutions , still it is a fact not to be forgotten , that the weak and wicked clamour that was raised against the great Harvey ,

    lasted but a few years , and that he lived to witness the utter discomfiture of his enemies , the complete triumph of the truth , to realize as ample a fortune as he desired , and to rise to the very summit of reputation ; surely this should cheer and encourage those who , two centuries afterwards , ( and such centuries I ) have encountered , or may encounter , the same reproach in a lik « cause . *

    Untitled Article

    Dr . Souihwood Smith on the Animal Economy . 137

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 127, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/59/