PREFACE. HI 



scarcely be a doubt that were the same principle 

 followed in the cultivation of the physical, moral, 

 and intellectual powers of man, and were no rule 

 received which is not in accordance with the laws 

 of his constitution, a much higher degree of success 

 would reward our exertions than we have ever yet 

 experienced or anticipated. 



The little regard which has hitherto been paid to 

 the laws of the human constitution, as the true basis 

 on which our attempts to improve the condition of 

 man ought to rest, will be obvious from the fact, 

 that, notwithstanding the direct uses to which a 

 knowledge of the conditions which regulate the 

 healthy action of the bodily organs may be applied, 

 in the prevention, detection, and treatment of dis- 

 ease, there is scarcely a medical school in this 

 country in which any special provision is made for 

 teaching it ; the pupil being left to elaborate it for 

 himself from amid information communicated to 

 him for other purposes. In some of the foreign 

 universities, chairs have been instituted for this pur- 

 pose ; and, in France, a journal of Hygiene has ex- 

 isted for a short time. But, in this country, with 

 the exception of Sir John Sinclair's elaborate Code 

 of Health, and one or two other publications of a 

 late date, the subject has never been treated wi|h 

 any thing like the regard which it assuredly de*- 

 serves. In one point of view, indeed, the omission 

 is not so extraordinary as it may at first sight ap- 

 pear. The prominent aim of medicine being to 

 discriminate and to cure disease, both the teacher 

 and the student naturally fix upon that as their cbiei* 



