Page:The Harveian oration on Harvey in ancient and modern medicine (electronic resource) (IA b20420080).pdf/11

 PREFACE

I FEAR that the only portion of this Address which aspires to be other than commonplace, that which relates to dropsy, may have but limited interest; while even the few whom it interests may find that, compressed as it necessarily is, it suffers from the want of detailed argument and corroborative cases. It is my hope to bring some of the considera- tions here briefly touched upon before the Medico-Chirurgical Society in a somewhat more expanded form. I may add that the association of renal dropsy with the dynamics of the circulation was no hasty invention on my part, put together for a temporary pur- pose, but had occupied my mind long before