PREFACE. 



tion of the articles was caused by an earnest wish on the part of the Authors 

 to do ample justice to their subjects, and a praiseworthy scrupulousness in 

 recording facts which they had not verified by actual observation. 



To this it must be added, that for a considerable period the continuance 

 of the work was jeopardised, and its publication wholly suspended for two 

 years, by the death, in rapid succession, of the leading partners of the 

 publishing firm under whose auspices the work was conducted, prior to its 

 passing into ihe hands of its present publishers, the Messrs. Longman. 



Nor will the Editor attempt to shield himself from blame as regards the 

 tardy completion of the Cyclopaedia. He is quite ready to confess that, in 

 other hands than his own, it would have been long since finished. He is con- 

 scious that he has been often dilatory, sometimes vacillating, occasionally 

 appalled by the magnitude of the undertaking, and by the knowledge of 

 the inadequacy of his powers to carry it on to a close. At the same time, 

 in self-defence, he feels bound to plead that, soon after the publication of the 

 first two or three parts of the work, certain onerous duties devolved upon 

 him, which greatly curtailed the amount of leisure available for literary 

 pursuits. In the first place, he was called upon, at short notice, to deliver 

 a lengthened course of Lectures on Anatomy and Physiology of a kind quite 

 new in this country, both as regards extent and nature, which demanded a 

 large amount of study and of personal inquiry and investigation ; soon 

 afterwards was added the responsible office of a Hospital Physician and 

 a Teacher of Clinical Medicine; these were, at no long interval, followed by 

 professional engagements, which, although not more responsible, created more 

 urgent and imperative claims upon his time and attention. With all these 

 demands upon him, it will not excite surprise that literary work often became 

 abandoned or postponed. 



At length, " per varios casus et tot discrimina rerum," the period of com- 

 pletion has arrived. And the Editor, while he is impressed with a deep sense 

 of gratitude that his own health and life have been spared till the completion 

 of the book, acknowledges, with thankfulness and pride, the invaluable aid 

 which he has obtained from all quarters. He looks back with much of the 

 same feelings which fill the mind of an architect who has projected a large 



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