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PREFACE. V.I ;
No fact is now more fully recognized than that a clear, intelligent,
and comprehensive knowledge of any subject can best be communicated
by one who has a working acquaintance with it or has made it an
object of special research. To secure for the several departments of
this work writers thus informed, and willing to take from needed rest
and give to toil the time necessary for the systematic presentation of
their specialized knowledge, was not the least of the difficulties which
attended the inception of this undertaking. How well those who
assumed this labor have accomplished their several tasks these pages
must testify.
In judging of their work, the fact must be borne in mind that
those textual abridgments which are essential in a compend or man-
ual would fall far short of the obvious requirements of a systematic
treatise. Throughout the preparation of these volumes this distinction
has been recognized, and, while prolixity and useless verbiage have
been avoided, space has been given for the fullest possible exposition
of the subjects taught. Above all, it has been desired that each con-
tribution should be a teaching paper; hence no detail necessary to
make clear the meaning of the writer has been spared.
This particularity of method has been specially emjjiiasized in the
sections devoted to technical processes and manipulative procedures
and as a full comprehension of their intricate details can rarely be
attained through so imperfect an agency as a merely verbal descrip-
tion the text has been lavishly furnished with illustrations largely
made from original drawings and models prepared by the various
contributors.
Upon certain points in histology, pathology, and therapeutics some
divergence of views will be noted. The Editor has not sought to
enforce absolute harmony of doctrine, or assumed to commit this work
to a partisan advocacy of either side of questions which are still i
upon many questions of great although not vital importance, and that
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