PREFACE. 



Of not less promise, in a still wider field of research, was JOHN REID, who 

 for a few years before his early removal under a painful and tedious disease, 

 filled the chair of Medicine at the University of St. Andrew's, a position in 

 which his great powers had but a limited scope. Reid was one of those men 

 who are content to take nothing for granted which it was at all in their 

 power to examine for themselves. His admirable investigation of the Anatomy 

 and Physiology of the Eighth Pair of Nerves is a model of anatomical and 

 physiological research, scarcely equalled and not surpassed by any similar 

 essay of recent or remoter times. His articles, HEART and RESPIRATION, in 

 this Cyclopaedia, bear ample testimony to his scientific character, and well 

 sustain the high reputation he had acquired even at a very early age. 



The late venerable Dr. BOSTOCK, who died at an advanced age, belonged 

 to a different school of Physiologists from those already referred to. No man 

 was more remarkable for the patience and depth of his literary researches. 

 Conscientious almost to a fault, he has left a scrupulously faithful record of all 

 that was done in Physiology up to the time at which he wrote, affording to 

 those who take an interest in that branch of inquiry an impartial historical 

 review of the progress of science. From the great erudition and sound 

 judgment of this excellent man, the Editor derived many valuable hints in 

 the first stages of the Cyclopedia, in the plan and early progress of which he 

 was pleased to take a lively interest. 



Born a British subject, the late W. F. EDWARDS (also a veteran in science 

 although he had by no means attained a great age) had spent most of his life 

 in France and followed his Physiological pursuits there. His principal re- 

 searches were directed to the observation of the influence of various physical 

 agents upon the phenomena of Life, and the investigation of the chemical 

 changes which occur in some of the most important and recondite vital pro- 

 cesses. Many of his Essays, which were at first published as detached 

 Papers, were afterwards collected, and formed his well-known work on the 

 " Influence of Physical Agents upon Life."* Dr. Edwards's researches, whilst 

 they determined many new and highly interesting facts, were especially valu- 

 able as promoting more philosophical views of life than those which referred 

 all vital phenomena to the influence of a hypothetical entity. 



* Translated into English by Drs, Hodgkin and Fisher, an. 1832. 



