XIV PREFACE. 



port unities of making inquiries, will at length bring: 

 us back to the truth, if we have been misled, and will 

 confirm and improve our inventions, if they be right." 

 The preceding^observations are not intended to re- 

 press the spirit of generous enterprise, but rather to 

 assist it, by giving it a proper direction. There are, 

 unquestionably, many things yet to be discovered in 

 anatomy, as proved by the continued contributions of 

 its cultivators. For, in the language of the motto, 

 " Multum adhuc restat operis, multumque restabit, 

 nee ulli nato, post mille ssecula prsecluditur occasio 

 aliquid adjiciendi." These remarks are only intended 

 as a salutary warning to the young votary of anatomy, 

 not rashly to promulgate, by boastful writing or lan- 

 guage, that he considers his own acquisitions as the 

 standard of the science, and every thing beyond them 

 as in the region of discovery. Because, if he does, he 

 is sure to meet with the most mortifying convictions 

 to the contrary; and sometimes to find himself placed 

 below the degree of his actual acquirements, for mani- 

 festing a want of acquaintance with topics common to 

 others. The rule is undoubtedly a good one: " Let 

 not him that putteth on his harness boast himself, as 



he that putteth it off." 



^ 



Nonthinking that the present treatise is a proper 

 field for discussion on controverted points, I have pur- 

 posely, excepting on a few occasions, avoided it, by 

 simply giving an opinion after my own views of cor- 

 rectness, without pretending to infallibility, or being 

 disposed to reject better information when offered. I 

 cannot, however, but feel the strongest diffidence of 



