PUBLISHERS' NOTE TO EIGHTEENTH EDITION. 



BOOKS, like men, have characters that can be analyzed to a certain point, 

 but beyond or below lies a quality, subtle as life, and incapable of analysis or 

 imitation, which is called personality. The greater the author, and the more 

 intense his mental action in creating his book, the more it partakes of this ele- 

 ment. This principle, so clear as to be almost axiomatic, is illustrated to the 

 fullest extent in the work in hand. Henry Gray combined two faculties, either 

 one sufficient to make his name famous. He was a great anatomist and a great 

 teacher. He possessed a thorough knowledge of anatoiiiy and an equal insight 

 into the best methods of imparting it to other minds. His text was unequalled 

 in clearness, and he united with it a series of incomparable illustrations. He 

 devised the method of engraving the names of the parts directly upon them, 

 thereby exhibiting at a glance not only their nomenclature, but also their posi- 

 tion, extent, and relations. His work, still unique in this respect, was also the 

 first to employ colors. Summing all, it is hardly to be wondered at that students 

 and teachers alike find their labors reduced and the permanence of knowledge 

 increased by the use of such a book. 



On its original appearance, half a century ago, it immediately took the 

 leading place, and it has not only maintained its position in its own subject, 

 but has also become the best-known work in all medical literature in the 

 English language. It is incomparably the greatest text-book in medicine, 

 measured by the numbers of students who have used it, and it is unique also 

 in being the one work which is certain to be carried from college to afford 

 guidance in the basic questions underlying practice. 



The consequent demand is evidenced in the number of editions, which 

 collectively represent the labors of many of the leading anatomists since the 

 early death of its talented author. This new revision is, perhaps, the most 

 thorough to which Gray's work has ever been subjected. Every line has been 

 carefully considered, any possible obscurity has been clarified, the latest acces- 

 sions to anatomical knowledge have been introduced, and much has been 

 rewritten. Care has been exercised to make the text a homogeneous, sequential, 

 and complete presentation of the subject, sufficing for every need of the student, 

 physician, or surgeon. By condensation and the omission of duplications it 

 has been found possible to combine this increased aggregate of knowledge with 

 a considerable reduction in the number of pages, to the reader's obvious 

 advantage. The illustrations have also been revised, those which no longer 

 represented the latest views being dropped, and a great number of new ones 

 added. 



(vii) 



