Wisely therefore have our Laws provided , that none but such as are recommended by their Learning and Probity should be admitted to take care of the Health of Men , none I say , but such as are approved of by the Learned . We have not in England wanted our Cato's , Boethus's and Paulus's , who by Law have kept Sycophants and Knaves from Practising of Physick ; who have obliged every one to Practise that Art and Trade he has been brought up to , and who have restored Learning to its place and honor .

For only the Learned in Anatomy know , what Part a Disease does primarily affect , and what by Sympathy , of what Nature things are , and what Remedies ought to be applied to each Part , since the Method of Cure varies according to the Nature of several Parts .

Only Men skill'd in Anatomy can give true Judgment upon a Wound , whether it be Mortal or no , which is of no small moment to a Judge or Magistrate for their Conduct and Procedure upon Criminals in that particular .

Such likewise they must be , who by dissecting a Diseased Body , can procure any advantage to the living , by finding out more proper Remedies , according as by Dissection they have found in others the cause and seat of the Disease .

Though by what has already been said , you see the Credit and Reputation Anatomy has in former Ages been , yet the Study of it never flourished more than in this last Age , wherein so many are so strenuously industrious , that one would think in our Age it might be brought to perfection ▪ Who can ever forget the Learned Asellius , for finding out the Lacteal Veins ? No less than immortal Glory can be due to the Renown'd Harvey , our Country-man , for finding out the Circulation of the Blood . He that cannot acknowledge the Excellency of our Willis for his Anatomy of the Brain , must never pretend to the subject Discourse . The curious Researches of our Wharton on the Glands surpass what has been said in former Times . The Scholastic and Learned Glisson has performed his Share in trasing the Meanders of the Liver-Vessels . The acute Lower has shown in sensible Terms , how the prime Mover of the Humane Machine exerts its Power . The renowned Bartholinus in Denmark , the Swammerdam's , Bilsius's , de Graaf's , and others in the Low-Countries ; but especially the Learned and Laborious Diemerbroeck , in Utrecht , have raised to themselves immortal Monuments of their Learning and Industry about this Subject . And upon Diemerbroecks Labours principally , what I have here to say , shall be employed . He says , he had for several Years been conversant in Anatomical Studies ; that in teaching others , he had learned many things himself that were new , and till his Time altogether unknown ; upon which he resolved to write a Book of particular Observations , and make them publick , as he saw several others had done before him . But abundance of his Friends disswaded him from this , and urged him rather to write a whole Body of Anatomy , and to put into it ( besides what Galen , Eustachius , Vesalius , and others had written , who had been most excellent in Works of this Nature ) not only his own , but all the Modern Inventions of all Learned Men whatsoever . This Advice was not unwelcome to him , because none had attempted this before him . But the Attendance upon his Practice , the Greatness of the Undertaking , and the Criticalness and Censoriousness of this curious Age , to say nothing of the Malice and Envy of some , did a little deterr him . However , these Difficulties being surmounted , he undertook the Business , finished it , and made it publick .

All the new things , which either he could find out , or were hitherto found out by the best of Anatomists , he has here brought upon the Stage . He further , in his First Edition , engaged , that whatever hereafter he should find lying hid in obscurity , he would bring to light , and when he died , that he would bequeath all to Posterity . For as long as the Desire of advancing Anatomical Knowledge should continue in the World ; he knew innumerable other things would be produced , which we cannot now so much as dream of , such things he recommends to Posterity , and that out of Love to the common Welfare , Men would not hereafter scruple to undertake this Province .

In this Anatomy of his , he tells you , he is not so ambitious as to arrogate to himself the excellent Sayings , or the new Inventions of others ; but desiring to give every one his due Honour ; he sets down the Names of the Authors , of whom he borrowed any thing ; for , as Pliny says , He ever reckoned it a piece of Good Nature and Modesty , to acknowledge his Benefactors , but that it was an Argument of Guilt and Ill Nature , to chuse rather to be catched in Theft , than to restore another his own , when he at the same time is in debt upon Interest . And so he gives to all their Due . For , he professes , he would not be accounted one of these , that by writing of Books , would procure themselves a Name , who by raking and scraping all they can from others , get a great deal together , and vaunt it all for their own , concealing the Authors Names from whence they stole , when in the mean time they mis-apprehend perhaps the Authors Meaning , and what they have thence transcribed , neither they themselves well understand , nor are they able to express it to others .

Nevertheless , in quoting of Authors , he uses not many Flatteries and Complements , but avoids all fulsome and Adulatory Blandishments , wherewith abundance of Books now adays are rather blotted than adorned , while they style the Authors , whom they cite , the most Eminent , never enough to be commended , the most Acute , the most Famous , the most Learned , the most Noble , the most Celebrated , &c , and adorn themselves , especially such as are yet alive , with I know not what Epithetes ( it may be to avoid and prevent some shrowd Objections , which haply they might otherwise fear ; or that they themselves being ambitious and delighted with such empty Applause , desire the same Favour , at one time or other , to be returned upon themselves ) he reckons , all he quotes , to be Learned Men , nor does he doubt of it , though he thinks some more Learned than others . Therefore he would have no Man take it ill , that he lards not his Name with many such Epithets ; because , as Complements now pass indifferently upon all Men , they rather fully the Illustrious Worth of the Deserving , than add any Splendor to it .

In this Book he studies not so much Politeness of Style , as the Truth , which has no occasion for Bombast and Rhetoric . But that he may the better discover what the Truth is , in several places he opposes other Mens Opinions , but in a friendly way ; some he refutes , and wholly rejects , but without any Malice ; here and there he ushers in his own , but without Ambition ; and whereas he has observed , that in most Authors , several things are wanting about the True Use of the Parts , many things , either written or judged amiss , in several places he treats more fully concerning it , but without Disparagement or Reproach to others . For he never reckoned it ▪ any Fault in a Learned Man , that all other Mens Writings do not please him alike , nor that he corrects many things , and contradicts many , provided it be done civilly , and without Virulence and Calumny ; which alass ! is now the Practice of too many Supercilious Scriblers , who , the better to defend their Darling Opinions , and these often taken , and stolen from others , and vouched for their own , had rather attack their Adversaries with foul Words and Scurrilous Writings ( which does not at all become Learned Men ) then concert the difference in friendly Reasonings .

In the Seventh Book of this Work , and other where , in describing the Ducts of the Veins , he takes a new and unusual Method ; for whereas other Anatomists heretofore derived the Branchings of the Veins from the Vena Cava and other great Veins , to all the Parts of the Body , he on the contrary prosecutes them from the Parts to the great Veins , and so to the Vena Cava , that so the continual Progress of the Blood , according to the Order of Circulation , might the better be demonstrated .

Thus much he published in his Life Time : But before he died , he had made several fresh Collections , and somewhere Alterations . These in this last Edition , from whence this Translation was made , are added by his Learned Son . Wherein we may modestly aver , that the most material things , found either in Ancient or Modern Anatomists , are comprehended , and far more Opinions and Discoveries , than ever were contained in any one Anatomical Treatise yet extant .

Now it being agreed by all skilful Physicians , that Anatomy is the solid Basis of Physic ; and ( as has before been said ) the Learned Diemerbroeck having excelled in laying the Corner Stone , how can it reasonably be suggested , that the same Learned Hand cannot build a Superstructure Correspondent ? The Author therefore having not rested in Theory alone , but having put in Practice what he so well knew in the Art of saving Men ; and moreover , having given , not only his own , but other Mens Practice in the most Epidemic Diseases , the Small-Pox and Measles , which were never till this Edition made publick ; we thonght we could not do better , than give our Country-men , in their own Tongue , what he so advantagiously has written in the Learned , and only to such as understand that . In these acute and violent Diseases , we find the best Methods yet invented , scarce sufficient to rescue the major Part of Patients from them ; how requisite therefore is it , that the Skill of so Learned and successful a Physician as Ours should not dye with him ? But he rests not here , his worthy Son has likewise communicated in this Edition , some of his Fathers Observations upon various Diseases , wherein consists the Life and Soul of Physic ; for in them , as in a Piece of Workmanship , you may see the Authors Skill , better than in any Precepts , inasmuch as it is much easier to prescribe Rules how to act , than to put those same Rules in Practice . So that in this Volume you may have a Summary of the Excellencies in the Art of Physick , which so many Learned Men in all Ages , since Physic was an Art , have by their utmost Diligence and Ingenuity been able to accomplish .