PREFACE. 



In this work I have conscientiously endeavored to give the greatest possible amount of 

 lexicographic and encyclopedic knowledge within the limits of a single volume, condensed 

 as much as is consistent with clearness, and so arranged as to furnish the student and worker 

 with concise, accurate, and useful definitions. 



I have tried to satisfy the following specific desiderata : — 



i. The inclusion of the many thousands of new words and terms that have been introduced 

 into medicine during the last few years, marked as they have been by unparalleled scientific 

 activity and progress. To this end an almost countless number of volumes and periodicals 

 have been systematically gleaned by myself and a tireless corps of friends and assistants. Not 

 to have met this important and pressing need would have made this volume a work of mere 

 inexcusable compilation and copying from the many word-books already published, instead of a 

 fresh gathering from the living literature of the day. 



2. To give the most compact epitomization of the works of older and authoritative 

 lexicographers, including all such obsolete or obsolescent terms as may be met with in the 

 medical encyclopedias or handbooks likely to be used by a modern student. 



3. To include all the more commonly-used terms of biology — a tning highly desirable ; 

 a. Because of the modern recognition of the great truth that general biologic science is the foun- 

 dation of genuine and progressive medical science ; b. Because the best schools of medicine 

 are more and more urging or making obligatory the preliminary biologic course of study ; 

 and c. Because, so far as I know, no satisfactory lexicon of biology exists in English. 



4. Keeping the size and purpose of the book well in view, to give it an encyclopedic 

 character — not only by supplying the usual pronunciation, derivation, and definition of 

 words, but also by showing their logical relations, their bearings, and their practical importance 

 for the worker in literary or clinical medicine. This aim will explain a number of peculiar 

 features, as for instance, the large number of tables, whereby at a glance one may catch the 

 correlations of a single fact with many others, and thus at once classify and crystallize his 

 comprehension of them. It seems deserving of mention that in modern literature there is not to 

 be found as complete and digested a resume of surgical operations, of bacteriology, of parasit- 

 ology, of tests, and of many other subjects, as is here furnished. 



5. When advisable, to give a pictorial illustration that would tell what words could not 

 make clear. Hence, those who find the work helpful in this respect will thank the publishers for 

 the generous supply of illustrations, a large number being new engravings from original drawings 

 made expressly for this work. Conservatism in this respect, however difficult, has been the rule, 

 because pictures, for example of surgical instruments, are plenteous and to be had for the asking, 

 and because illustrations that are useless, or that do not illustrate, might possibly have made the 

 book superficially more attractive, but would certainly have given ground for just criticism. 

 Besides the large number of original illustrations first presented in this volume, many have been 

 taken or adapted from the well-known and authoritative works of Sappey, Landois, Ziegler, 

 Piersol, Stirling, Woodhead, Holden, Tyson, Fullerton. and others. 



