Xiv THE AUTH0R*9 PREFACE. 



mdlatte traitate nelle clinica medica di Pavia negl* anni 

 1797 e 1798,111 vol. J I refer them entirely to the impartial 

 judgijient of the public. 



Translations of them appeared in several foreign lan- 

 ^^uagcs, and the satisfactory manner in which they have 

 been noticed, and extracts made from them, both in the 

 joijrnals of medicine and of literatuj^e, as well as the hon- 

 orary diplomas w'nich have been awarded to me by sev- 

 eral illustrious academies, so sDon as the first volume ap- 

 peared, encourage me to hope tluit the public will favour- 

 ably receive the result of my other literary occupations. 



To reflections analogous to the cases observed, drawn 

 from the study of the best works of the most esteemed 

 writers, I was desirous of adding my clinical observations, 

 tiiat the pupils in surveying them, at the same time they 

 observed the diseases I described, might perceive the sour- 

 ces whence I derived the precepts that guided me in the 

 practice of medicine. A young practitioner, I was also de- 

 voting myself with ardour and confidence to the examina- 

 tion of those works, ancient and modern, to which medicine 

 owes so much of its present reputation, when my duty call- 

 ed me to initiate others in the healing art. 



I think I have thus sufficiently justified the method I hav* 

 followed in the order of my Lectures, by explaining diffi- 

 culties as they rose, and by publishing the Jinnotaxioni 

 medico-pratichef in which my pupils might find a summa- 

 ry- of the leading precepts which should confirm the argu- 

 ments of our daily pursuits ; and as, agreeably to the im- 

 mortal axiom of Hippocrates^ art is long, life short, and 

 practice difficult, I still approve the method adopted to con- 

 duct the pupils to a practical acquaintance with the resour- 

 ces which medicine offi^rs to assist nature in triumpliing 

 over many diseases that oppress her. 



The Treatise on the worms which inhabit the human 

 body, in conformity to the program of my observations on 

 practical medicine, should form a part of this work ; but 

 on reflection I thought it better to publish it separately, 



