PREFACE. XV 



my powers to execute, in a moderately satisfactory, 

 not to say a proper manner, the enterprise of writing 

 a treatise on anatomy. There are not many persons, 

 who, as they advance in the study of the science, by 

 dissections and by reading, do not, after awhile, as in 

 the cultivation of high religious and moral attainments, 

 mistrust their acquirements; and find, that whatever 

 may have been the fancied perfection of their know- 

 ledge during the infancy of their studies, they were 

 then only on the threshold of the temple. In begin- 

 ning the career of anatomical inquiries, as an almost 

 exclusive profession, we have yet to appreciate the la- 

 bours; I may, indeed, say to read the writings of the 

 eminent men who have gone before us. We have yet 

 to learn the infhiense multitude of observations by 

 which we are surrounded, and the great labour that it 

 requires to master them all. The fact is well esta- 

 blished, that it requires some years of hard study be- 

 fore the anatomist becomes aware of his own weak- 

 ness, and of the many things that he has yet to do in 

 order to be brought up to the actual state of the sci- 

 ence. 



Impressed by these convictions, I have constantly 

 endeavoured to ascertain and present the science of 

 Descriptive or Special Anatomy, as it stands at the 

 present day, \vithout entering into all the minutiae of 

 details of which it is susceptible. I have, therefore, 

 neglected no fact bearing on the subject, which seemed 

 to be sufficiently authenticated or important to deserve 

 notice. Owing, however, to the expanded field in 

 which I have worked, and the many pressing engage- 

 ments which drew my attention from it, it is not im- 



