hath established a new doctrine in his lifetime.' Complete and universal acceptance was, however, not obtained until late in the century, even after Malpighi had in 1661 by means of the newly invented microscope completed the demonstration of the circulation by tracing the course of the blood in the capillaries. In contrast with the tenacity with which traditional conceptions have been adhered to in the past, as illustrated in this discovery and its reception, and the whole history of science is strewn with more bitter struggles for acceptance, it is gratifying to note the receptivity of the public mind to new theories in our day and the tolerance and readiness with which they are accorded a hearing.
The significance of Harvey's work lay not merely in the discovery of the circulation of the blood and the profound changes which it wrought in the conceptions of the functions of the body and in medical thought and practise, great though these were. It lay more perhaps in its contribution to the development of scientific method. In the words of the Harveian orator, "here for the first time a great physiological problem was approached from the experimental side by a man with a modern scientific mind who could weigh evidence and not go beyond it, and who had the sense to let the conclusions emerge naturally but firmly from the observations. To the age of the hearer, in which men had heard, and heard only, had succeeded the age of the eye, in which men had seen, and had been content only to see. But at last came the age of the hand—the thinking, devising, planning hand; the hand as an instrument of mind now reintroduced into the world in a modest little monograph of seventy-two pages, from which we may date the beginning of experimental medicine."
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
Sir David Gill, astronomer royal in South Africa, has retired—Dr. Wilhelm Waldeyer, professor of anatomy at Berlin, and secretary of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, has celebrated his seventieth birthday.—The sum of about $5,000 has been subscribed for the foundation for the advancement of geographical study in honor of Dr. von Neumayer.—Advantage will be taken of the twentieth anniversary of the isolation of fluorine to present a gold medal to M. Moissan.—In acknowledgment of his work in metallurgical research, Professor Henry M. Howe, of Columbia University, has received from the Russian emperor the order of the Knighthood of St. Stanislas.
Dr. Sven Hedin, who by order of the government was denied access to Tibet from the side of India, is making good his entry into western Tibet from Chinese Turkestan.—Mr. Walter Wellman and Major Hersey have returned to this country. The former will go to Paris in six weeks to continue his supervision of the changes in his airship. Major Hersey will accompany the Chicago Record-Herald expedition in its attempt to reach the Pole next summer.—Captain Roald Amundsen sailed on November 8, on the Scandinavian-American steamer Hellig Olaf, for Christiania, where the records of his magnetic observations in the Arctic will be worked out. Captain Amundsen has presented his entire collection to the Norwegian government. The new king of Norway has conferred upon him the highest decoration of the kingdom, the grand cross and cordon of St. Olaf.
A scientific session of the National Academy of Sciences was held at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, beginning on Tuesday, November 20.—The American Association for the Advancement of Science and the twenty or more national scientific societies affiliated with it will meet in New York City during convocation week, beginning on December 27. It is expected that this will be the largest and most important meeting of scientific men ever held in America.
