12 PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



similar necessity^ in a little work I published on ' The Sense- 

 likeness [Sinnlichkeit] of Animal Bodies/ I found that this 

 use of the word with a new meaning was of little advantage, 

 because the majority of the critics dwelt too much on the ex- 

 pression itself, and hardly noticed the weightier matters to 

 which it owed its origin. In the present work I have avoided 

 this objectionable word, and in its stead selected the expression 

 " eocternal and internal sense -like [sinnlich] infipressions,'' al- 

 though I have shown in § 402, &c., the usefulness and propriety 

 of the former. At any rate, the reader must get accustomed 

 to the use of one of the two expressions. 



The reader will be reminded in many places that I have not 

 considered any of my principles practically, nor shown their 

 application to the practice of medicine, although I well knew 

 that this step would not only have been useful generally, but 

 would have also disposed many to grant me their approval. 

 But my principal object was to show convincingly, that the 

 physiology of the proper animal nature is a branch of science 

 altogether distinct from the physiology of the entire mechanism 

 of the body ; and to determine satisfactorily the boundaries of 

 the two, which, indeed, are generally laid down in this work. 

 A mere sketch would have been sufficient for this purpose, and 

 it would have been much shorter if it had not contained so 

 many new views, which it was necessary to treat somewhat in 

 full, to render them intelligible ; nevertheless I have quoted 

 briefly only all those doctrines belonging to peculiar Animal 

 Physiology, which are contained in the physiology of the whole 

 mechanism of animals, so as to indicate their places in the 

 present work. Now that the principles of a proper animal 

 physiology can be surveyed connectedly, it will be found much 

 easier to separate what is defective, obscure, confused, un- 

 intelligible, and false, from what is really useful, and to bring 

 the whole system to perfection. For this reason I earnestly 

 wish that this sketch may not be read and judged of super- 

 ficially and unconnectedly ; but that the reader will endeavour 

 to follow me in the chain of ideas from the beginning throughout 

 the work. 



