THE 1 OF VOL. XXVII.] JANUARY, 1812. [NO. 155. TO THE READERS OF THE MEDICAL JOURNAL. THE HE Proprietor of this Work, having received the sanction of the Editors to appropriate this space in the present Number to the Commercial Interests of the Journal, feels it his duty, in the first instance, to express his deep sense of the substantial and extensive patronage with which the Work has been honored since its commencement. Previous to the period at which he planned this publication in 1797, there had existed other periodical works devoted to Medical Literature; but the temporary or inadequate support they had met with, afforded slender prospects on which to calculate on the permanent establishment of so important a series as the PRESENT MEDICAL JOURNAL. The execution presented, however, so much living matter, and the several departments exhibited so many strong appeals to the interest and curiosity of the Faculty, that he found himself agreeably disappointed, and this Journal very soon ranked in point of circulation with the most po pular works of its time. Its fame and circulation spread through Europe and America, and it was sought with avidity in those parts of Africa and Asia where modern science and the English language had obtained a footing. In Germany it was regularly translated, and enriched with notes by a learned German Editor; and in America it was almost entirely reprinted at more than one city. Such distinctions and unparalleled success naturally drew upon it envy and competition, and hence that tribe of imitators who have started one after another, only to repent of their piratical attempts, during almost every year since the commencement of the Work. Various changes among the Editors have been the unavoidable consequence of the decease of some, and of those fluctuations in stations and pursuits to which medical men, particularly in London, are more liable than any other class of society. The Proprietor, for himself, shall remark, on this subject, that he has always performed his duty liberally, and with an anxious desire to meet the expectations of the Public, and support the reputation of the Journal. In his present arrangements he estimates the approbation of the Public by the greatly increasing sale, and by the opinions unequivocally expressed of its management by some of the first medical men in the metropolis. In a word, the sanction of the Faculty is demonstrated by the value and variety of the communications; these at the same time increasing the number of readers, and, by a fortunate concurrence, an increase of readers necessarily tending ut the same time to add to the number of the communications. Independent of the value of these latter, the readers of the Work cannot fail to have been gratified by the enlargement of the Critical Analysis of Medical Books, and by the attention bestowed on the department of Intelligence which tends so particularly to confer on the Journal the characteristic of being THE GAZETTE OF THE FACULTY. The completion of the TWENTY-SIXTH VOLUME serves to render this Journal a VAST LIBRARY OF DEPOT of Medical Science, Opinions, Improvements, and Discoveries; and, on this occasion, the Proprietor feels it proper to state, that, having recently reprinted some scarce numbers, he is now enabled to supply at the regular price any numbers or volumes wanted to perfect sets. He has also half bound some sets with calf and Russia backs, which for a limited period he offers at the reduced price of FIFTEEN GUINEAS per set in calf, or SIXTEEN POUNDS, TEN SHILLINGS, in Russia. He will also, for the accommodation of Gentlemen who find it inconvenient to get their numbers bound, exchange perfect sets half bound for clean numbers, allowing a proportionate price for numbers returned; and such and all orders may be addressed directly to SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, No. 47, Ludgate Hill, covering remittance, or through any Bookseller in town or country, For |