PREFACE, Xill 



servience to the laws which characterise living be- 

 ings, will, he trusts, meet with the approbation of 

 physiologists ; and tend to reduce within proper li- 

 mits the application of chemistry to this science. 

 At any rate, the present inquiry may serve to recall 

 to a new and more accurate examination, the facts 

 on which our knowledge of these subjects is founded ; 

 and in the present state of science, such an exami- 

 nation cannot fail to dispel much of the error and 

 obscurity in which they are still invplved. 



EDINBURGH, ") 

 MARCH 20, 1807,) 



