THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



THESE Elements of Physiology, which contain an abstract of the doc- 

 trines I have taught for several years past in my public lesctures, are 

 written on the model of the small work on Physiology of the great and 

 immortal Haller. I am far, however, from presuming to say that I have 

 equalled the merit of a work, which, as is remarked by a man of the 

 highest ability,* gave, when it appeared, a new aspect to the science, 

 and commanded universal approbation. If these Elements of Physiology 

 deserve any preference over that work, the honour is not due to the Au- 

 thor, but to the times in which he writes, enriched by the progress of 

 the physical sciences, with a multitude of data and results which may be 

 said to have rendered Physiology altogether a new science. 



It will be easily perceived, that the plan I have adopted differs essen- 

 tially from that followed by several repectable physicians ; and that the 

 treatises on Physiology most recently published, resemble the present, 

 only in their title. In combining a great number of facts, in adding to 

 those already known, the result of my own observation and experience, 

 and in connecting them by a method that should unite accuracy and 

 simplicity, I have had it in view to keep a due measure between those 

 elementary works, whose conciseness approaches to obscurity and dry- 

 ness, and those in which the authors, omitting no detail, and exhausting 

 in a manner their subject, seem to have written only for those who have 

 leisure or inclination for the profoundest study. 



Should any conceive that the present undertaking is above the capacity 

 of my age, I will say, even at the risk of a paradox, that young men are, 

 perhaps, fittest to compose elementary works ; because the difficulties 

 they have encountered in the study, are yet fresh in their memory, as well 

 as the steps which they have taken to overcome them ; and further, be- 

 cause their recent experience points out to them the defects and advan- 

 tages of the different methods of other instructors ;t so that he, who in 

 the shortest lapse of time, has carried to the greatest extent his own ac- 

 quisition of sound knowledge, will, in some respects, be the best guide to 

 his successors, in the difficult and perplexing parts of elementary study. 



In the composition of the work, I have borne constantly in mind the 

 necessity tf sacrificing elegance to clearness, which I know to be the 

 most important merit of an elementary treatise. Further, I have through- 

 out followed, I believe, the same arrangement in the succession of the 

 subjects, and applied to the science of living man, the principle of the 

 Association of ideas, so well developed by Condillac, (in his Treatise on 

 the Art of Writing,) and to which that philosopher has shown, that all 

 the rules of the art are to be referred. Notwithstanding the rigorous law 

 to which I have subjected myself, I have, after the example of the an- 

 cients, and, among the moderns, of Bordeu, and of several other physi- 

 cians and physiologists of equal celebrity, thought myself justified in em- 

 ploying, when I felt it necessary, metaphorical expressions ; because, as 

 has been correctly observed by "a justly celebrated writer, if conciseness 

 do not consist in the art of reducing the number of words, still less does 

 it consist in depriving language of imagery. The conciseness which is 

 to be envied is that of Tacitus, at once eloquent and energetic ; and, far 

 from any fear that imagery should injure that deservedly admired com- 



* " When Haller published his Printce Unfa; Pbysioloxite, which he valued most of all his works, a consider- 

 able sensation was excited in the schools. In works on the same subject, it was customary to find long disser- 

 tations, almost always void of proof, extraordinary opinions, or brilfiant fictions. It was matter of wonder, that 

 in Haller swr.rk, there should be found only numerous iaets, precise details, and direct inferences, &c." 



t" 1 'he best order in which truth can be set forth, is that in which it might naturally have been discovered ; 

 tor, the surest method of instructing others, is to lead them along the path which we ourselves have followed, 

 in our own instruction, in this way, we shall seem not so much to lay before them our own knowledge, as 

 to set themselves on the suavch and discovery of unknown truthB."--0/n/ftif. 



