Yl INTRODUCTION. 



their organization, and which are constantly violated through igno- 

 rance. This fact ought to convince every one that there is a necessity 

 of studying those laws, both to prevent and cure disease. The 

 physiological inferences which I have drawn at the close of different 

 chapters will be found, I believe, instructive and useful. 



I lay no claim to any new discovery on the subject of Anatomy and 

 Physiology. Both of these branches of medicine have been investi- 

 gated and improved. But in consequence of a vast amount of 

 useful matter scattered in various authors, mixed up with much that 

 is very indifferent, I have consulted them analytically and eclecti- 

 cally. Hence, I have drawn my materials, as I have in my other 

 works, from every available source. This has rendered it very 

 difficult to condense the great amount of voluminous matter into 

 the compass of the present volume. I have endeavored, however, 

 to omit nothing really valuable, and at the same time have endea- 

 vored to present the subjects treated of in such a manner as to make 

 -J the study of Physiology pleasing as well as instructive. How far 

 I have succeeded I must leave to the candid and enlightened reader. 

 As for the ignorant and prejudiced, I expect neither their good 

 opinion or patronage. 



If our Reform Schools of Medicine do not regard this treatise as 

 a text-book on Anatomy and Physiology, I humbly trust that they 

 will at least receive and recommend it as an elementary or pre- 

 paratory treatise. 



I will close these remarks in the language of Lawrence, in his 

 introduction to his Lectures on Man : " I shall be satisfied, how- 

 ever, gentlemen, if you will accord to me the humbler merits of 

 industry, in collecting materials ; patience in arranging, combining, 

 and reflecting on them ; fidelity and independence in exhibiting to 

 you, precisely as they appeared to my mind, the inferences and 

 deductions that resulted from the whole." 



W. BEACH. 



Anatomical Museum, New York, Sept., 1847. 



