Punch (74.1878)

Mat 25, 1878.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 239

THE NEW HUSSAR HESSIANS AND PANTS.

" See, I've dropped my Handkerchief, Captain de Vere I "

" I know yott have, MlSS constance. I *m vers SORRY. I

can't Stoop, either I "

HOMA.GE TO HARVEY.

{In Disguise f)

to the editor of " punch."

Sir,—In your impression of the 13th ult. there was an article
entitled " Harvey a Humbug," which I read with indignation,
regarding it as a gross libel on the memory of a great and good man.
But a friend kindly explained to me that it was only a report of a
public meeting, that of an Association called the " Antiphysiological
Society," and all mere irony ; what was meant being precisely the
reverse of what was said. Now then, Sir, how am I to construe an
advertisement I read the other day, since the above date, in the
Times, commencing as fallows?—

HARVEY'S CLAIM to the DISCOVERY of the CIRCULATION
of the BLOOD.—Harvey's merit has been very much, exaggerated.
Harvey never consummated the discovery of the circulation.

Then comes an extract from a preface to a medical work, of which
the writer says, touching Harvey, that—

" He left the circulation as an inference or induction only, not as a sensible
demonstration. . . He had no notion of the one order of sanguiferous vessels
ending by uninterrupted continuity, or by an intermediate vascular network
in the other order. This was the demonstration of a later day, and of one
who first saw the light in the course of the very year when Harvex's work
on the heart was published. Malpighi, the Pope's chief physician, exam-
ined the circulation by the microscope in 1666, and so demonstrated it."

Is this all irony, too, Sir ? Irony like yours ? The following
notice, observe, was appended to the apparent, if ironical, dis-
paragement of Harvey : —

"The above Advertisement is inserted by the Society for the Total
Abolition and Utter Suppression of Vivisection."

What then, Sir, does the body professing itself a Society for the
Abolition and Suppression of Vivisection, in depreciating Harvest,
mean to do him honour, like the deliverer of the address to the Anti-
physiological Society which you reported ? By saying that Harvey
did not discover the circulation of the blood, do the Antivivisection-
ists really intend to say that he did ? If so, then, the former and the
latter are both equally ironical. In the same spirit those ironical
adversaries of Vivisection, I suppose, would contend that Sir Charles
Bell was not the discoverer of the connection of the motor nerves
with the fore, and the sensitive nerves with the hinder, divisions of
the spinal cord. This, then, would be irony too. Sir Charles
Bell's discovery, also, was effected through experiments on living
animals, performed, as no doubt were Harvey's too, as humanely
as possible. The Antivivisectionists who disparage Harvey, and
would likewise, in consistency, decry Bell, vilifying both ironically,
have also, I suppose, adopted a title which, representing them as
aiming to put down Vivisection, is ironical as well. They would
have us understand that their obj ect is to promote that practice and
not to prevent it; and the pretence of the latter design is only their
irony. _ In short, they detract from the fame of Harvey—of whose
profession I have the honour to be a humble Member — only to
extol him ; just as you, perhaps, by way of an intended compliment,
might call me an ass. But that sort of irony—indeed all irony
whatever—is open to misconstruction, and, preferring the naked
truth in plain language, by which I can never be taken in and led
to make a fool of myself,

I remain, Sir, ever yours faithfully,

Simplicitas.

BEATI POSSIDENTES.

Air—" The Vicar of Bray:'

"When gallant Beaconsfleld uprose,

His Party's pride and glory.
He frighted all our country's foes

In fashion truly Tory.
And now that each true heart's at ease,

And every wrong is righted,
All argument at once should cease,
And Britons be united !
That this is law, and Bhall remain,

I boldly make profession ;
A patriot's duty's to sustain
The Party in possession!

The Ship of State's in peril great

Of rough and dirty weather,
And seeing things in such a state,

All hands should pull together.
Why she was steered on such a tack,

If cads raise awkward question,
We '11 larrup each base lubber's back,

And scout the vile suggestion!
For this is law, &c.

The obstinate and trait'rous dogs

Who claim to have " opinions,"
Would quickly swamp in faction's bogs

Our glorious dominions.
When English interests are at stake,

No time for shilly-shally ;
Wake, Britons, wake, all else forsake,

And round your Leaders rally !
For this is law, &c.

The country should be one—with us ;

The dolts who favour schism
Are moved by spiteful animus,

And void of patriotism.
For 'tis most clear, to doubt it's sin,

Each true-blue Briton knows it,
That whensoever our side's in
'Tis treason to oppose it.
For this is law, and shall remain,

I boldly make profession ;
A patriot's duty's to sustain
The Party in possession.

military and naval intelligence.

We are given to understand that at all official banquets, it is
intended to replace the time-honoured toast of "The Army and
Navy" by " Our Sepoys and Seaboys."