ΤΟ

WILLIAM FARR, M.D., F.R.S., D.C.L.

MY DEAR DR. FARR,

The cordial approval and hearty encomiums you have, for the last thirty years, passed on this Book and on its companion Volume-Advice to a Mother— demand my warmest acknowledgments. You spoke highly of them when they first came out-when they and the author were comparatively unknown-long before the books had achieved their great popularity—their marvellous success.

Such commendation, coming from a man whose knowledge of Medical and Social Science is so vast, is most flattering to me, and has given me additional energy to make this Book still more complete and useful, and more worthy of that noble Science, in whose vineyard you and I have so long and so earnestly toiled.

I am anxious, therefore, to associate your name with my own, for I owe you a deep debt of gratitude. Accept, then, the Dedication of this Volume as a small token of my respect and esteem, and believe me to remain,

DEAR DR. FARR,

Ever yours most sincerely,

PYE HENRY CHAVASSE.

PRIORY HOUSE, OLD SQUARE,

BIRMINGHAM, January, 1873.

PREFACE.

THIS Book has been translated into French, into German, into Polish, and into Tamil (one of the languages of India); it has been extensively published in America; and is wellknown wherever the English language is spoken.

The Twelfth Edition-consisting of twenty thousand copies-being exhausted in less than three years, the THIR TEENTH EDITION is now published.

One or two fresh questions have been asked and answered, and two or three new paragraphs have been added.

PYE HENRY CHAVASSE.

214 HAGLEY ROAD, EDGBASTON,

BIRMINGHAM. June, 1878.