XI 



general, f have hitherto had the mortification to be 

 obliged to pass them over, or at least to treat them in 

 so general a way that my views could scarcely be under- 

 stood. By referring my students hereafter to the facts 

 contained in the following sheets, I shall have it in my 

 power to shorten considerably the elementary part of my 

 course, and be enabled to introduce at least a certain 

 number of physiological lectures ; by pointing out the 

 general facts already ascertained, and the physiological 

 consequences legitimately deducible from these facts. This 

 is a branch of medical knowledge which has been much 

 more attended to on the continent than in Great Britain. 

 But from the intelligence and the zeal which the medical 

 students in this country in general possess, I am satisfied 

 that if the subject were once fairly started, it would be- 

 come a favourite object of pursuit, and that it would 

 advance to perfection with a degree of rapidity of which 

 we can at present form but an imperfect idea. 



