larly those of Cartesius, Conringius, Walaeus, and Plempius.
It is quite possible that the second Disquisition of Harvey to Riolan, published with the first in duodecimo form at Cambridge in 1649, was brought out by Riolan’s latter publication, though it is not directly referred to. Little did Harvey appreciate that his old friend was both blind and deaf—incapable of seeing obvious facts. It was not a question of being conversant with anatomy or of having had experience, on both of which points Harvey dwells at length. Riolan knew his anatomy as well as, or better, than any man of his generation. It was not that he would not—but he that could not—see the truth which was staring him in the face. As Reynaud[1] mentions, an occasional thesis (Fagon, 1663;. Mattot, 1665) supporting the circulation did slip through the Faculty: but the official recognition in France did not come until 1673, when Louis XIV founded a special Chair of Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes for the propagation of the new discoveries.
The satire of Moliere and the Arret Burlesque of Boileau completed the discomfiture of the 'anticirculateurs’, but it had taken nearly half a century to overcome the opposition of those who saw in the new doctrines the complete destruction of the ancient system of medicine.
IV.
Even when full grown in the conscious stage Truth may remain sterile without influence or progress on any aspects of human activity. One of the most remarkable
- ↑ Les Medecins au Temps de Moliere, 1863.
