VI ADV ERTI S EM EX T . 



The present work has been translated in England, in Spain, in Italy? 

 in Germany, and men of merit have not disdained the task : amongst 

 others, I may mention Mr. Robert Kerrison, Member of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons in London, author of a translation of these Elements 

 of Physiology, published in the year 1803. 



Since the "publication of the Fourth Edition of this work, Professor 

 Sprengell has published his Institutes of Physiology. 5 * The date of that 

 new work, and the well deserved reputation^of its author, entitle it to be 

 considered as a faithful account of the state of physiological sciences in 

 Germany. In that work, the reader will be astonished to find it stated 

 that every thing in the human body is governed by polar influence, and 

 by the laws of antagonism ; that man is in a state of positive electricity ; 

 that his body is formed chiefly of oxygen : while the female body is in a 

 state of negative electricity, with a superabundant quantity of hydrogen 

 in the composition of its solids and fluids. Thus, by the premature ap- 

 plication of a few facts, borrowed from the physico-chemical sciences, 

 the learned of Germany have thrown back Physiology into the uncertain- 

 ty of conjectures and hypotheses. 



* On the other hand, Gall, by his anatomical discoveries on the organi- 

 zation of the brain and nerves, and a few other Physiologists, by their 

 experiments on living animals, have been usefully employed in advanc- 

 ing the progress of Physiology. The author has been anxious to increase 

 the value of this new edition, by adding to it the result of their obser- 

 vations. 



* Institutiones Physiologic ce. Amstelocl. 1809, 2 vols. 8 vo. 



