OF THE UNIVERSAL MEDICAL SCIENCES AND ANALYTICAL INDEX. A YEARLY REPORT OF THE PROGRESS OF THE GENERAL SANITARY EDITED BY CHARLES E. SAJOUS, M.D., PARIS, AND SEVENTY ASSOCIATE EDITORS, ASSISTED BY OVER TWO HUNDRED CORRESPONDING EDITORS, COLLABORATORS, AND CORRESPONDENTS. Illustrated with Chromo-Lithographs, Engravings, and Maps. VOLUME I. 1896. THE F. A. DAVIS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, CHICAGO. AUSTRALIAN AGENCY: MELBOURNE, Victoria. PREFACE. IN the elaboration of the 1896 ANNUAL the aim of the editor has been to add to the practical value possessed by former issues, -e.g., to afford greater aid to the general practitioner and to enable investigators and authors to find in its pages not only food for thought, but also a greater number of utilizable facts. If the new features introduced have any merit, the editor wishes to state that the manner in which the profession at large and the medical press have acknowledged his efforts from the start are alone to be thanked. Kindness has been a power in this instance; it has helped the editor to surmount difficulties untold and to face with comparative equanimity what to the majority of men would have proven too trying to be endured. To bring the usefulness of the ANNUAL to its highest standard it was deemed advisable to increase the length of the abstracts, so as to make it possible to fully convey an author's meaning and to furnish the reader with sufficient data to enable him to utilize that author's suggestion to the best advantage. That logical sequence plays an important part when knowledge is to be inculcated cannot be denied; interruption of a fixed line of thought distorts the mental impression received, compromises the sense, and leaves but a vague notion where a correct interpretation might have been the key-note of valuable information. A re-arrangement of the entire text was deemed necessary to fully carry out this idea. To request the members of the associate staff to strictly carry out the proposed changes was not considered justifiable. Delicacy hardly warranted such a request, while past experience had shown that the greatest effort was necessary on the part of many associates to prepare even the articles in their simpler form within the proper time. The editor, therefore, thought it advisable to increase the number of his immediate assistants, and with their help to prepare the majority of the articles in the new form, introducing not only the best work done during the year, but also all features which might prove of interest to the associate editor in charge of each 2163 |