VI 



copies of them corrected in Dr. Cullen's hand-writing. To 

 these Lectures I have restored a portion of the History of Me- 

 dicine, which Dr. Cullen had transferred to his preface to the 

 First Lines. 



Besides numerous additions made to the First Lines of the 

 Practice of Physic, from Dr. Cullen's MS. Lectures, I have 

 introduced various passages from the Treatise of the Materia 

 Medica, published by him in two volumes quarto in 1789. 

 The passages from the MS. Lectures are distinguished from 

 the original text by inverted commas ; and those taken from 

 the Materia Medica by the addition of the letters M.M. 



In presenting you with these elementary works in their pre- 

 sent form, I am well aware that the science of medicine has 

 made great advances since they were first produced ; advances 

 which require corresponding changes in the manner in which 

 this science should now be taught. But I know of no general 

 work on the Practice of Physic, hitherto published in this 

 country, calculated to supersede Dr. Cullen's writings as text- 

 books ; and certainly none which can bear a comparison with 

 them in the extent and variety of the medical information which 

 they contain ; in the model which they afford of distinct and 

 comprehensive definitions and histories of diseases ; and in the 

 taleflt which they display for the accurate discrimination and 

 simple generalization of the results of experience. 



I am, 



GENTLEMEN, 



Your obedient Servant, 



JOHN THOMSON, M.D. 



80, GEORGE STREET, ) 

 Edinburgh, 1st Nov. 1827. j 



