THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



The task of the translator, although very confined, is not 

 altogether unimportant to the advancement of the arts and 

 sciences, and especially to the improvement of the medical 

 science in this country, at this present time. 



Forbidden to add to, or to subtract from the original, the 

 translator's business is simply to interpret and translate his 

 author's meaning faithfully, and to render it in clear and in- 

 telligible language. 



It has been the fate of the translator of the present work, to 

 give an English version of the last labours of the lamented 

 Bichat; and now, again, the ten-fold more difficult, but pleas- 

 ing task devolves on him, of presenting to the medical profes- 

 sion of this country, the last work of the eminent, erudite, and 

 much lamented Beclard. 



The object of the translator will be fulfilled, and he will be 

 repaid for his trouble, if without deviating from his author, 

 he has made the original, clear and comprehensible to his 

 English reader. But should some stern critic, eager to find 

 fault, censure the performance, which has cost the trans- 

 lator much labour, trouble and solicitude ; and under circum- 

 stances that the reader is seldom solicitous to know, and sel- 

 domer inclined to make due allowance for ; let him remember, 

 that if this English version is not faultless, still much has been 



