EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



I HAVE mucli pleasure in presenting to the members of 

 the Sydenham Society a translation of Simon's ' Chemistry 

 of jNIan/^ a work that obtained for its author a European repu- 

 tation, and is universally regarded as by far the most complete 

 treatise that has yet appeared on Physiological Chemistry. 

 Until I became acquainted with this work in 1843, I enter- 

 tained the idea of publishing a text-book of medical chemistry 

 with the view of attempting to supply a deficiency in the medical 

 literature of this country, which, I doubt not, has been felt by 

 many of my brethi'en as much as by myself. But a careful 

 perusal of the ' Chemistry of JSIan' convinced me that I should 

 be doing better service to the profession by undertaking a 

 translation of that work than by the publication of a separate 

 treatise. Impressed with this feeling I wrote to the author, who 

 immediately offered me all the assistance in his power, and 

 promised me a considerable amount of original matter. I regret 

 to say that his early and unexpected death in the autumn of 

 the same year rendered this promise of comparatively little 

 value. I have, however, freely availed myself of the permission 

 granted me by the Council of the Sydenham Society to insert 

 such additions as the progress of chemistry, since the original 



' Physiologische und pathologische Anthropochemie mit Beriicksichtigung der 

 eigentlichen Zoochemie. Berlin, 1842. 



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