TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



PROFESSOR YIRCHOW and his works are so well known wherever 

 the science of medicine is studied, that I think it quite unnecessary, 

 to give any account of them here. 



When I arrived in Berlin in March, 1858, these lectures were in 

 the course of delivery, and I was present at a few of the concluding 

 ones. Subsequently, whilst attending the lectures, classes, and post- 

 mortem examinations* which are held in the Pathological Institute 

 by Professor Virchow, I had ample opportunities for seeing practical 

 illustrations of most of the doctrines advocated in this book. It 

 was natural, therefore, that I should feel a desire to translate these 

 lectures, the more especially as I had every reason to suppose that 

 the views put forward in them still remained unknown in con- 

 sequence, no doubt, of their German dress to a large proportion 

 of the English medical public, although they had already, many of 

 them several years previously, appeared in Professor Virchow's 

 larger works. 



The translation will in many instances be found to differ somewhat 

 from the original, for numerous additions, subtractions, and substi- 

 tutions have been made, many of them at the suggestion of the 

 Author, many at my own, but all with the Author's sanction. 



A few notes will be found, especially in the later lectures. Of 

 these some are literal, some free translations of, or are based upon, 

 answers I received from Professor Yirchow to questions I had put 

 to him, whilst others (pp. 352, 406, 415-416) were made entirely at 



* From 700 to 800 bodies are examined annually in the Institute. 



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