Heredity, health and personal beauty.

  • Shoemaker, John V. (John Veitch), 1852-1910.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Heredity, health and personal beauty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    PREFACE. CRITICS poke fun at authors by saying that the Preface is the author's apology for his unsolicited appearance before the public. But, why is it thereby implied that authors are more than likely to be mistaken in their view that the}7 will supply a public want, when we consider that wants follow created, as well as existing, needs? We begin the customary apology by remarking that there is among educated persons a generally confessed need of popular instruction as to matters of health, and of all things indirectly appertaining thereto; and this, in effect, is the concession of the existence of a considerable public need. There can be no dis- sent from the conclusion that the want arising from this need can be increased by perceptions aroused by such treatment of the subject of well-being as we have here endeavored to employ ; that, in a word, supply will increase the public demand for in- struction in this branch of knowledge. If, therefore, this work prove satisfactorily to have accomplished the purpose in view, it will be gratifying, not otherwise, to find it secure of a lease of life. There are three points touched upon, the discussion of which, it is hoped, may prove not uninteresting even to members of the medical profession. These are comprehended by the Introduction and the chapters on the complexion and the hair. Consideration of the value of August Weismann's conclusions touches at present the extremes of discussion by scientific and agricultural societies, and those conclusions, relating to questions as to the transmission of both healthy and morbid conditions, deeply concern the physician. 1519 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, October, 1890.