VI PREFACE. 



manuscript, and further revising the published reports of 

 the s Chemical News,' I have made it my constant object 

 to give such an account of modern Organic Chemistry as 

 should, with a moderate amount of attention, be profit- 

 able and even interesting to those who are not chemists. 

 In other words, I have striven throughout, whether or not 

 successfully, to render my subject popular in the legi- 

 timate sense, by making it generally intelligible. 



I need scarcely say that these lectures are not meant to 

 exert any direct influence upon points of medical practice. 

 I hope, however, they may assist in convincing the pro- 

 fession at large of the necessity for regarding vital pheno- 

 mena from a chemical point of view ; and in promoting 

 among students, especially those about to graduate, the 

 knowledge of a highly important though much neglected 

 branch of natural science. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL : 

 March i, 1866. 



