To the Most Reverend Father in Christ, and Lord,

LORD GILBERT,

By Divine Providence, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan; and of the Privy Council to the Most August Prince CHARLES II, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.

IT has been so established by laws (Most Distinguished Prelate) that whatever happens to be built upon the soil of any land, that same thing follows by the right of accessory. Since, therefore, for that work which I was recently undertaking—concerning the nature and functions of the sensitive soul, as well as the affections of the brain and of the nervous system and the various diseases that are found within them—I had laid down the anatomy of the human head as the foundation; with this treatise dedicated to your Clemency, it was altogether necessary that whatever structure might afterwards rest upon that base, [it should be] your...