not the well-known work of Luciani, the distinguished Professor of Physiology at Rome, appeared recently in German dress, edited by Professor Verworn, and spread broadcast views to which, with a chauvinism unworthy of their history, our Italian brethren still adhere. It has been well said ‘that he alone discovers who proves', and in the matter of the circulation of the blood, this was reserved for the pupil of Fabricius. Skipping many arduous years we next meet him as Lumleian Lecturer to the College.
III.
The really notable years in the annals of medicine are not very numerous. We have a calendar filled with glorious names, but among the saints of science, if we know an era it is as much as can be expected—perhaps because such men are less identified with achievements than representative of the times in which they lived. With many of our greatest names we cannot associate any fixed dates. The Grecians who made Hippocrates possible, live in memory with some theory, or a small point in anatomy, or in regard to the place of their birth; while the ‘floruit’ cannot always be fixed with accuracy.
Hippocrates himself, Erasistratus, Galen, and Araetius have no days in our calendar. We keep no festival in their honour as the churches do those of St. Jerome and St. Chrysostom. It is not until after the Renaissance that certain years (anni mirabiles) stand out in bold relief as connected with memorable discoveries, or with the publication of revolutionary works. Nevertheless, only a few in each century; even the sixteenth, so rich in discoveries, has not more than five or six such years, and not one of them is connected with work done in
