745 T16 1871 ΤΟ SIR WILLIAM FERGUSSON, BART., F.R.S., PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; SERGEANT-SURGEON TO H.M. THE QUEEN; SURGEON IN ORDINARY TO HIS LATE R.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT; PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE Author of the first Edition of this work being unable from the press of other engagements to prepare a second, that task has been by him entrusted to me, and I have undertaken it the more willingly in the belief that the work is a useful one. It is right I should add that I am solely responsible for all the alterations and additions in the present volume; and they are neither few, nor, as it seems to me, unímportant. The general plan of the work has been entirely changed. I have divided it into four parts: the first treats of the Physi-* ology and Pathology of Childhood, and includes chapters on the Anatomical and Physiological Peculiarities of Childhood, on Hygiene, Dentition, Pathology, Symptomatology, and Therapeutics. Part II. Treats of General Diseases, including all the varieties of Fever-Continued and Eruptive-and the several Diathetic Diseases-viz., Scrofula, Tuberculosis, Rickets, and Syphilis. The Third Part considers all the Special Diseases of Children, arranged in their proper physiological order-viz., Diseases of the Nervous, Respiratory, Circulatory, Digestive, and Urinary Systems; with Diseases of the Skin, Eye, and Ear. In the Fourth Part I have discussed the more common Accidents, Injuries, Malformations, and Deformities—congenital and acquired of Childhood, including those connected with birth. Lastly, the Appendix of Formulæ has been much enlarged and re-arranged, though it must be confessed with regret that in the present state of therapeutics, any classification of drugs, though convenient in some respects, is more artificial and arbi trary than scientifically exact or trustworthy. The advances. which are being made in this department of practical medicine will, it is hoped, before long lead to a sounder system of therapeutical classification. Perhaps I may be permitted to direct special attention to the views I have advocated in regard to diathesis, and its importance in the therapeutics of infancy and childhood. Long experience and careful observation have convinced me that herein will be found the key to the successful treatment of most of the diseases of early life. It is not necessary for me here to particularize the additions which have been made to the present volume, they are scattered throughout the work, and some new chapters have been introduced, while the whole has been carefully revised, and may, I trust, be considered fairly to represent the present state of our knowledge of this department of medicine, so far at least as that is possible in a work of this size. In the performance of my task I have endeavoured to make the book as practically useful as possible, avoiding at the same time too great diffuseness and the obscurity which often arises from over-condensation; if I have succeeded in this, my hopes will have been realized. In conclusion, I have to thank my friends Dr. Tilbury Fox and Mr. Robert Brudenell Carter for their kind assistance; the former in revising the Chapter on Diseases of the Skin; the latter for having entirely re-written the chapter on Diseases of the Eye. GEORGE STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. March, 1870. A. M. |