Animal Chemistry; or, The Relations of Chemistry to Physiology and Pathology A Manual for Medical Men and Scientific Chemists

Abstract

FOR many years the want of a good manual of physiological chemistry or animal chemistry in the English language has been a standing reproach to English science. The causes of this want are not far to seek. Physiology has not many votaries in England, and physiological chemistry, being in interest one step farther than physiology from the verge of medical practice, has still fewer followers. The number of possible writers of a text-book of animal chemistry has, therefore, been small; and, among them, the number of men whose capability and opportunities for such an undertaking might justly have led them to hope for a successful issue to their labours has, it is needless to say, been smaller still. The qualifications to be looked for in one who attempts the task of writing such a manual are indeed not slight. He must be a thoroughly trained chemist whose judgment has been much exercised in the appreciation of chemical questions; he must be a physiologist with a sound and direct knowledge of most of the practical methods of physiology; he must be an anatomist who is fairly well acquainted with the microscopic structure of animal tissues; and he should have some insight, exact if not special, into morbid processes and pathological states. We need not wonder, then, that the labourers have been few.

Animal Chemistry; or, The Relations of Chemistry to Physiology and Pathology. A Manual for Medical Men and Scientific Chemists.

By Charles Thomas Kingzett (London: Longmans, Green, and Co.)