The opening of Preface
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This reprint is not a facsimile of the edition of 1584, for that was in black letter, and its page smaller and of quarto size. Being also for modern readers, and for use, the i of the original has become, where necessary, the j of the second edition; the u and v have been altered according to modern usage, that is, generally interchanged; while the short s replaces the ſ. Such modernisations render it more readable by the historical and philosophical student, by the man of science, and by the psychological physician, willing to learn all that may instruct himself and benefit others. Neither would this reprint have been undertaken, unless the work itself had appeared to my friend and fellow-student, W. T. Gairdner, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow,—and led by him—to myself and others, worthy on the above-mentioned grounds, of being reproduced, and as being both in matter and style a valuable English classic.