PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 



A NEW Edition of Dr. Kirkes's Handbook of Physio- 

 logy having been so soon called for, a sufficient time 

 has not elapsed for the accumulation of any consider- 

 able number of facts, needing incorporation with the 

 text. The physiological discoveries 01 two years, 

 although many, do not of necessity indeed, cannot 

 include a large number of those broader truths, 

 the enunciation of which occupies the chief portion 

 of this work. On the other hand, suggestions, from 

 friendly critics too numerous to thank individually, 

 regarding reconstruction of certain portions of the 

 book, especially in correspondence with the wants 

 of students, have been neither few nor unheeded. 



Hence, though a record of all important and well- 

 founded recent observations has been inserted in 

 various sections, the chief difference in the present 



