PREFACE. 



THE science of anatomy has now been so long and so suc- 

 cessfully cultivated, that most parts of the human body have 

 been both carefully described and accurately delineated; but the 

 vessels which are the subjects of this essay, having only of late 

 been made known to anatomists, and not being easily traced by 

 dissection, have not been completely described, nor have they 

 ever been delineated. The following, therefore, is an attempt, 

 in some measure, to supply these deficiencies j and the author 

 flatters himself, that when it is considered how great a share 

 those vessels have in the composition of our body, and how 

 important the offices are which they perform, that this small 

 addition to the stock of Anatomical Science will not be unac- 

 ceptable, either to the practitioners of the healing art, or to the 

 philosophical inquirers into the works of nature. 



