PREFACE. 



The Introduction which 1 have written, at the request 

 of the Council of the Sydenham Society, might suffice for a 

 Preface also, if it were not that there are one or two matters 

 to be mentioned which a Preface only can include. 



In the first place, I earnestly request the reader's close at- 

 tention to the works contained in this Volume ; partly, for my 

 own sake, that I may not lose the sweetest reward of literary 

 labour ; but principally for his and for the interests of medical 

 science and art. They belong to a field of research not yet 

 fully entered upon by the medical profession. Emigrants from 

 its ranks have been the " Pilgrim Fathers" of many, if not 

 most, of the natural history sciences ; but there is one that 

 has yet to be perfected by its labours — the science of mind. 



The study of Life and Organisation is confessedly essential 

 to the progress of medical science and art ; and it appears to 

 me, that that true intellectual system of the universe, which 

 will and must comprehend, in orderly arrangement, all the phe- 

 nomena of Life and Mind, ought, therefore, to emanate from 

 the medical profession. If so glorious a result of philosophical 

 inquiry be within its scope and aim, then are the works con- 

 tained in this Volume of double value and interest to it, since 

 they not only powerfully elucidate the Physiology and Patho- 

 logy of the Nervous System, but constitute an important con- 

 tribution to Mental Philosophy. 



Having said so much for the works entrusted to my care, I 

 must now say something, by way of thanks, to those who have 



