Dr. Burdon Sanderson delivered last week the Harveian -oration before
the Royal College of Physicians, eulogising Harvey, of course, for cutting up animals alive to watch the action of the heart and study the circulation of the blood, and exhorting young English physiologists to tread in that great man's footsteps. Especially he exhorted them to go abroad, to -study physiology in German Universities, not merely because in this country "the imitation of Harvey is denounced by popular opinion, and impeded by legislation, but rather that -during the last twenty or thirty years, we, in England, had, like the foolish virgins, allowed our lamps to go out, and while we put up statues to Harvey and dined in his honour, handed over to others the task of doing his work and searching -out the secrets of Nature." The illustration is hardly happy. To represent the wise virgins, as having replenished their oil with ex- tract of the agonies of helpless victims, and so entering into a world of joy, while the foolish virgins are banished to the outer darkness only because they hesitated to distil their oil from such terrible ingredients, is to invert the significance of a great religious metaphor, and literally to turn darkness to light, and light to darkness.
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