EDITOR'S PEEFATOEY NOTE 



On writing the chapters upon metabolism and the internal secretions 

 for my "Clinical Diagnosis of Internal Diseases" I was impressed with 

 the need for a treatise that would deal with these subjects in a more com- 

 prehensive way. Many important monographs bearing upon one or an- 

 other topic in the field have appeared in this and other countries. Period- 

 ical medical literature contains an ever-increasing number of observations 

 and researches bearing upon disorders of metabolism and upon diseases in 

 which the functions and structure of the ductless glands are altered. Med- 

 ical men everywhere are evincing a lively interest in both the practical and 

 the theoretical aspects of these subjects. The time seemed ripe, accord- 

 ingly, for the publication of a work that would bring together, as far as 

 possible, in reasonable compass, convenient for perusal and reference, all 

 the essential facts that bear upon metabolism and the internal secretions 

 in health and in disease. 



The editor and the associate editors, in drawing up the plan for the 

 four volumes, have kept in mind the desirability of presenting in some- 

 thing like adequate measure and proportion the various materials ana- 

 tomical, physiological, chemical, experimental pathological and clinical 

 that bear upon the endocrine glands and their functions and upon the 

 processes of metabolism. In their division and apportionment of the sub- 

 jects they have tried to strike a happy mean between overexpansion, on 

 the one hand, and a futile brevity on the other. It seemed to them im- 

 portant to have the subjects dealt with in a manner suited to the needs of 

 practitioners of medicine as well as of original workers in these special 

 fields and not merely to produce a short textbook adapted only to the means 

 and minds of the younger 'medical students. 



Mention of the chief distinctive features of these volumes will give the 

 reader an idea of the service that has been attempted. These features 

 include : 



1. Concise, authoritative statements of knowledge and opinion as it 

 exists at the time of writing regarding the internal secretions and metab- 

 olism in health and in disease. 



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