The following Work is wholly of a practical nature: its object is to ascertain the real phenomena of Fever, and the most safe and effectual treatment of the disease. It was found impossible to include in this volume some researches of a statistical nature which it was at first intended to incorporate in the work.

On looking over the account which has been given of the phenomena, I find that, by an oversight, I have omitted to make any mention of the peculiar odour which belongs to a fever-patient. It is so characteristic that a person, familiar with the disease, might in many cases be able to pronounce, merely from the odour of the effluvia that arises from the body, whether the disease were fever.

I cannot allow this work to go forth to the world, without expressing my obligation to Dr. Dill, for the great assistance he has afforded me in the collection and arrangement of the cases which illustrate the symptoms and the pathology, and in the construction of the tables. And I am happy to avail myself of this occasion to bear my testimony to the excellent history which is drawn up of every case admitted into the house; to the completeness of the record which is kept of the morbid appearances on inspection; to the care which is taken of the sick, in the absence of the physicians; and to the able and zealous manner in which, as the resident medical officer of the Fever Hospital, he performs the arduous duties of his office.