Vlii PREFACE. 



pression of style, figurative expressions are, indeed, those which comprise 

 in fewest words the greatest sum of ideas.* 



Those who insist on meeting in a work on Physiology, with a romance 

 instead of the history of the animal economy, will, no doubt, reproach me 

 with having entirely neglected a great number of hypotheses, on the uses 

 of organs, ingenious or absurd ; with having omitted, for example, while 

 speaking of the spleen, to mention the opinion which considers that viscus 

 as the seat of mirth and laughter ; with having said nothing of the opinion 

 of those authors, who conceive it to maintain the equilibrium of the two 

 hypochondria, by counterpoising the liver ; nor even of the doctrine of 

 tne ancients who ascribed to it the secretion of the atra bilis, &c. To 

 recall such errors for the sake of elaborate refutation, would be wasting 

 much precious time in idle discussions, and possessing, as Bacon calls it, 

 the art of making one question bring forth a thousand, by answers more 

 and more unsatisfactory. I have chosen to forego all such vain parade, 

 from a clear conviction, that works of merit are as often distinguished by 

 some things, that are not to be found in them, as by those they do contain. 



Several authors, in treating of the science of man, have indulged them- 

 selves in frequent excursion into the vast field of accessory sciences, and 

 have, without necessity, incorporated in their works whole chapters on 

 air, on sound, on light, and other subjects, which belong to the depart- 

 ment of natural philosophy and chemistry. Haller himself is not entire- 

 ly free of blame, for having discredited physiology by this borrowed dis- 

 play. I have introduced only such general ideas of the subject, as were 

 absolutely necessary to render my own intelligible, and were, indeed, 

 too closely connected with it, to admit of separation. 



One of the principal faults of writers on physiology is, that they are apt 

 to fall into frequent repetitions 5 and that fault is often owing to the diffi- 

 culty of settling, satisfactorily, the limits of action, which are mutually 

 connected and dependent among themselves, and running into each other, 

 like those that are cawied on in the animal economy. 



" In composition, one should avoid prolixity, because it is fatiguing to 

 " the mind ; digressions, because they divert the attention ; frequent divi- 

 " sions and sub-divisions, because they are perplexing ; and repetitions, 

 "because they are oppressive. What has been once said, an<J in its pro- 

 " per place, is clearer than if several times repeated elsewhere, "t In 

 following these precepts, (and they cannot be too much attended to,) one 

 raav it is true, incur the risk of being thought superficial, by superficial 

 reaclers, who form their opinion of a work from the perusal of a single 

 chapter ; but a most ample compensation will be found in the opinion of 

 those, who choose to be thoroughly acquainted with a work, before they 

 pass on it their final judgment. 



After having stated in what spirit this work has been written, I may 

 say something^ of the motives which have led to its publication. I would 

 mention in the first place, the advantage which, it might be expected, 

 would accrue to the science, and to those who are engaged in its pursuit ; 

 and, in the next place, the satisfaction which study has in store for him, 

 who bestows on it the time he can snatch from the laborious practice of 

 our art. In his short intervals of leisure from public instruction and 

 from professional duty, left to himself and his own thoughts, in the silence 

 of study, and in the calm of meditation, he looks down, with an eye of 

 pity, on those, who drag on, through the lowest intrigues, a despicable ex- 

 istence, and there finds his consolation against the endless vexations that 

 are prepared for him by supercilious ignorance, and jealous mediocrity. 



*" Df la-Literature consideie danssts rapports avec les Institutions Sociaies per Madame de Stael-Holstein, 

 f Condillac Essai sin- rOrigine des Cormoissanees humaines, seronde partie, sect. ii. chap. iv. 



