114 



Finally, with regard to the manner in which I 

 have endeavoured to treat the subject of Animal 

 Chemistry, it has been altogether different from 

 that of my predecessors, who, considering it as a 

 part of general chemical knowledge, have all di- 

 vided the productions of the animal body into cei% 

 tain classes, and described them only as objects of 

 analytical chemistry, to which they have added an 

 appendix, with some general reflections on the 

 economy of animal life. But this mode of treat^ 

 ing Animal Chemistry is altogether without an 

 object, and gives to the results of chemical in- 

 vestigations, little more than a technical value, 

 which, however, is entirely foreign to Animal 

 Chemistry, properly so called. For my part, I 

 have endeavoured to unite chemical and ana-, 

 tomical researches in the pursuit of one common 

 object, in order thus to give to the investigation 

 of the Animal Chemist, a determined and scien^ 

 tific tendency, and to his efforts, a physiological 

 view. As my predecessors have not always be- 

 gun from the same point, or taken their aim in 

 the same direction, it has happened, that much 

 has been overlooked by them, which might have 

 been found without difficulty, and thereby I have 

 been enabled, in the experiments which I have 



