Medicine, as the art of preserving and restoring health, is the rightful office of the great army of earnest and qualified American physicians. But their utmost sincerity and science are hampered by trying restrictions with three great classes of people: those on whom the family physician cannot call every day; those on whom he cannot call in time; and those on whom he cannot call at all.

To lessen these restrictions, thus assisting and extending the healer's work, is the aim of the pages that follow.

Consider first the average American household, where the family physician cannot call every day. Not a day finds this household without the need of information in medicine or hygiene or sanitation. More efforts of the profession are thwarted by ignorance than by epidemic. Not to supplant the doctor, but to supplement him, carefully prepared information should be at hand on the hygiene of health—sanitation, diet, exercise, clothing, baths, etc.; on the hygiene of disease—nursing and sick-room conduct, control of the nervous and insane, emergency resources, domestic remedies; above all, on the prevention of disease, emphasizing the folly of self-treatment; pointing out the danger of delay in seeking skilled medical advice with such troubles as cancer, where early recognition may bring permanent cure; showing the benefit of simple sanitary precautions, such as the experiment-stations method of exterminating the malaria-breeding mosquito. The volumes treating of these subjects cannot be made too clear, nontechnical, fundamental, or too well guarded by the supervision of medical men known favorably to the profession.

Again, the physician cannot come on time to save life, limb, or looks to the victim of many a serious accident. And yet some bystander could usually understand and apply plain rules for inducing respiration, applying a splint, giving an emetic, soothing a burn or the like, so as to safeguard the sufferer till the doctor's arrival—if only these plain rules were in such compact form that no office, store, or home in the land need be without them.

Finally, the doctor cannot come at all to hundreds of thousands of sailors, automobilists, and other travelers, to ranchers, miners, and country dwellers of many sorts. This third class has had, hitherto, little choice between some "Practice of Medicine," too technical to be helpful, on the one hand, and on the other, the dubious literature of unsanctioned "systems"; or the startling "cure-all" assertions emanating from many proprietors of remedies; or "Complete Family Physicians," which offer prescriptions as absurd for the layman as would be dynamite in the hands of a child, with superfluous and loathsome pictures appealing only to morbid curiosity, and with a general inaccuracy utterly out of touch with twentieth-century knowledge. What such people need, much more than the dwellers in settled communities, is to learn the views of modern medicine upon the treatment of the ever-present common ailments—the use of standard remedies, cautions against the abuse of narcotics, lessons of discrimination against harmful, useless, or expensive "patent medicines," and proper rules of conduct for diet, nursing, and general treatment.

Authentic health literature existed abundantly before the preparation of these volumes, but it was scattered, expensive, and in most cases not arranged for the widest use. Not within our knowledge has the body of facts, most helpful to the layman on Sanitation and Hygiene, First Aid, and Domestic Healing, been brought together as completely, as clearly, as concisely, with a critical editing board so qualified, and with special contributions so authoritative as this work exhibits.

"Utmost caution" has been a watchword with the editors from the start. Those to whom the doctor cannot come every day have been repeatedly warned of the follies of self-treatment, and reminded that to-day it is the patient that is treated—not the disease. Those to whom the doctor cannot come in time are likewise warned that the "First-aid Rules" of this Library are for temporary treatment only, in all situations where it is possible to get a physician. And the utmost conservatism has been striven for by the author and the several revisers in every part of the work that appeals particularly to dwellers in localities so removed that the doctor cannot come at all. Especial delicacy was also sought in the treatment of a chapter which, it is hoped, will aid parents to guide their children in sexual matters. The illustrations represent helpful, normal conditions (with the exception of some necessary representations of fracture, etc.) with instructive captions aimed to make them less a sensation than a real benefit; and no pictures appear of a sort to stimulate mere morbid curiosity.

The greatest sympathy and appreciation of this work have been shown by the progressive and recognized practitioners who have seen early copies. They recognize it as a timely attempt to create and compile health literature in a form most complete within its limits of space, and in a manner most helpful and sane. The eager curiosity regarding themselves that has been sweeping over the American people has been diverted into frivolous and harmful channels by much reckless talk and writing. A prominent newspaper, in its Sunday editions, recently took up the assertion, in a series of articles, that appendicitis operations resulted from a gigantic criminal conspiracy on the part of surgeons; that a sufficient cure for appendicitis, "as any honest doctor would tell you," is an injection of molasses and water! The endless harm done by such outright untruth is swelled by a joining stream of slapdash misinformation and vicious sensation, constantly running through the press.

Education is sorely needed from authority. People will read about their bodies. They have a right to information from the highest accredited source. And to apply such knowledge Dr. Winslow has labored for many years during his practicing experience, condensing and setting into clear order the most vitally important facts of domestic disease and treatment; an eminently qualified staff of practicing specialists has coÖperated, with criticism and supervision of incalculable value to the reader; and the accepted classics in their field follow: Dr. Weir Mitchell's elegant and inspiring essays on Nerves, Outdoor Life, etc.; Sir Henry Thompson's "precious documents of personal experience" on Diet and Conduct for Long Life; Dr. Dudley A. Sargent's scientific and long-prepared system of exercises without apparatus; Gerhard's clear principles of pure water supply; Dr. Darlington's notes and editing from the unequaled opportunity of a New York City Health Commissioner—and many other "special contributions."

It is the widely accepted modern medicine, and no school or "system," that is reflected here. While medicine, as a science, is far from being perfect, partly because of faulty traditions and misinterpreted experience, yet the aim of the modern school is to base practice on facts. For example, for many years physicians were aware that quinine cured malaria, in some unexplainable way. Now they not only know that malaria is caused by an animal parasite living and breeding in the blood and that quinine destroys the foe, but they know about the parasite's habits and mode of development and when it most readily succumbs to the drug. Thus a great discovery taught them to give quinine understandingly, at the right time, and in the right doses.

An educated physician has at his command all knowledge, past and present, pertaining to medicine. He is free to employ any means to better his patient. Now it is impossible to cure, or even better, all who suffer from certain disease by any one method, and a follower of a special "system" thus ignores many agencies which might prove efficient in his case. While there is a germ of good and truth in the various "systems" of medical practice, their representatives possess no knowledge unknown to science or to the medical profession at large. Many persons are always attracted by "something new." But newness in a medical sect is too often newness in name only. These systems rise and fall, but scientific, legitimate medicine goes ever onward with an eye single to the discovery of new facts.

That these volumes will result in an impetus to saner, quieter, steadier living, and will prove a helpful friend to many a physician and many a layman, is the earnest wish of

The Publishers.