DEDICATION

To Monsieur J. B. Nacquart,
Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine.

Dear Doctor—Here is one of the most carefully hewn stones in the
second course of the foundation of a literary edifice which I have
slowly and laboriously constructed. I wish to inscribe your name
upon it, as much to thank the man whose science once saved me as
to honor the friend of my daily life.

De Balzac.