Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, BY HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. H129 664 Vil 1864 ᎢᏳ JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D., Late Professor of Materia Medica, Institutes of Medicine, Medical Jurisprudence, Obstetricks and the Diseases of Women and Children in the University of the State of New-York; Member of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London; of the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh; of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York; of the Historical Society of Massachusetts and of New-York; of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York, &c. PREFACE OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR. THE sixth American edition of the "STUDY OF MEDICINE" is reprinted from the fourth English edition, which was issued in London early in the present year: beside the ample additions of Professor Cooper, it contains between four and five hundred notes of a practical character, derived principally from the writings of American physicians. It was with extreme diffidence, and with no little dread of appearing presumptuous, that the American Editor assumed the responsibility of adding notes to a work characterized by such profound learning and deep research: but he was encouraged by the consideration, that although the "Study of Medicine" has been used as a text-book for several years in this country, and is thought to be indispensable to every medical library, it contains but few allusions to the important results of American practice; while some forms of disease peculiar to this country, and the contributions of American physicians to physiology, pathology, therapeutics, and the materia medica, are, generally speaking, unnoticed in it. In fulfilling his duty, the Editor has attempted to divest himself of local feelings; to consider the physicians of the United States as belonging to one family; to be just to all; and to present the results of their experience with fairness. How far he has succeeded, may be seen by referring to the notes marked with the letter D., for which he alone is accountable. The desire, however, of printing the new edition in such a form as to place it within the reach of every one, and the constant inquiries for the book, which, to speak technically, has been out of print for many months, obliged the publishers to limit the Editor both as to space and time. This fact will account for the brevity with which many important topics have been treated, and also for some omissions. To those of his professional brethren who have so kindly tendered the results of their experience, the Editor returns his warmest acknowledg |