XXV111 PREFACE. 



of fresh points of departure for researches, 

 render physiology more extensive, but neither 

 more profound nor more solid. 



No one will venture to maintain, that the 

 knowledge of the forms and of the phenomena 

 of motion in organized beings is either unne- 

 cessary or unprofitable. On the contrary, this 

 knowledge must be considered as altogether 

 indispensable to that of the vital processes. But 

 it embraces only one class of the conditions 

 necessary for the acquisition of that knowledge, 

 and is not of itself sufficient to enable us to 

 attain it. 



The study of the uses and functions of the 

 different organs, and of their mutual connex- 

 ion in the animal body, was formerly the chief 

 object of physiological researches ; but lately 

 this study has fallen into the back-ground. 

 The greater part of all the modern discoveries 

 has served to enrich comparative anatomy far 

 more than physiology. 



These researches have yielded the most val- 

 uable results in relation to the recognition of 

 the dissimilar forms and conditions to be found 

 in the healthy and in the diseased organism ; 

 but they have yielded no conclusions calculated 

 to give us a more profound insight into the 

 essence of the vital processes. 



The most exact anatomical knowledge of the 



