PREFACE. Vli 



which he considers a far more important purpose of the study, 

 namely, the culture and discipline of the Mind itself. Having 

 been satisfied, by no inconsiderable experience of different 

 modes of Education, that Natural Science, if judiciously 

 taught, is second in value to no other subject as an educational 

 means, and that it may be made to call forth a more varied 

 and wholesome exercise of the mental powers than almost any 

 other taken singly, he has kept this purpose constantly in 

 view; and he trusts that the experience of intelligent In- 

 structors will be found so far to concur with his own, that the 

 study of Physiology may be still more generally introduced 

 into Popular Education. It can only be by the general diffu- 

 sion of sound information on this subject, that the Public 

 Mind can be led to understand the difference between 

 Rational Medicine, and that Empiricism which now presents 

 itself under so many different forms ; that it can appreciate 

 the true value of measures of Sanitary Reform, the efficiency 

 of which must depend upon the amount of support they 

 receive from an intelligent public opinion ; and that it can 

 be preserved from those Epidemic Delusions, whose preva- 

 lence, from time to time, is not less injurious to the minds 

 of which they lay hold, than is that of Epidemic Diseases to 

 the bodies of those who suffer from them. 



He has only further to add that, whilst keeping in view 

 the most important practical applications of the Science of 

 Physiology, he has not thought it desirable to pursue these 

 too far; since they constitute the details of the Art of pre- 

 serving Health, which is founded upon it, and which may be 

 much better studied in a distinct form, when this outline of 

 the Science has been mastered. And, for the same reason, 

 he has adverted but slightly to those inferences respecting the 

 Infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, of the Great First 

 Cause, which are more obvious, although, perhaps, not really 

 more clear and valid, in this Science, than in any other. 



