vi PREFACE. 



portions, has given the volume, at first sight, the appear- 

 ance of having been largely altered. This however is 

 not the case. For good or for bad, the book remains 

 very much as it was ; and though I have done my best 

 to remove some of the many defects present in previous 

 editions, I have been encouraged, by the favour with 

 which those editions have been successively received, to 

 persevere in the views which I have always held as to 

 which are the parts of physiology most to be insisted on, 

 and which may be lightly touched or wholly omitted ; 

 and though I would still most strenuously repudiate 

 the idea, put forward by some, that there is such a 

 thing as a physiology for medical men, different from 

 that physiology which is a part of science, I have 

 tried to make this volume especially useful to medical 

 students. 



My decision to do away with the small print portions 

 of former editions has been largely determined by the 

 fact that my former pupils, now my colleagues at Cam- 

 bridge, have undertaken to join with me in treating 

 these higher or advanced parts of physiology in a more 

 extended and satisfactory form. And the hope that' the 

 result of their labours will soon appear has led me, in 

 this volume, to omit all references, and to use as little as 

 possible the personal authority of the names of investi- 

 gators. The fondness of students for the use of names 

 of persons is as marked as the pertinacity with which 

 they use them wrongly; and if any observer may feel 

 aggrieved at his name being absent from an ordinary text- 

 book, he may at least have the satisfaction of reflecting 

 that the omission of all names does something to prevent 

 others receiving the credit of his labours. 



