Page:The Principles and Practice of Medicine.djvu/7



following work, although designed for Students of Indian Medical Colleges, may perhaps be found in some degree useful by those Medical Officers who are for the first time entering upon medical practice in India.

It has been the Author's aim to treat each subject clearly and euccinctly : to avoid as much as possible controversy and spec- ulation: and to allot space to special diseases in proportion to their importance and prevalence in tropical countries. Ihe preparation of a complete treatise upon the Practice of Medi- cine, which would claim to rival existing standard works, has not been attempted. Nor has it been sought to supersede the many excellent treatises that are extant upon the prevailing diseases of tropical climates. The Author has desired to set before Indian Medical Students, the various subjects that are usually comprised in a system of Medicine, in those points of view in which his experience_as_a jeacher for nearly twenty years gggnres him they will be most readily apprehended ; and whilst on the one hand he has endeavoured for the most part to restrict his work within those limits, beyond which youno- men in statu pupillari should not be expected to travel, he has been equally solicitous oa the other hand to guard against superficial treatment of his subject. Upon the judgment he may have exercised in this respect, he cannot but feel that the success of his work will in some degree rest.

New views, which are^opposedjo long establishedjgrmciples, ha^e_be^r 1 icai^f^^ and only admitted when supported by trustworthy evidence. In describing the treatment of special diseases, the Author has confined himself to those methods which his experience or judgment has led him to believe to be the best.