where no danger is close at hand; but surely it is wise to be on our guard against the approach of disease, to observe its first warnings, and thus, by the use of appropriate remedies, prevent the enemy from obtaining a permanent lodgment in one of the vital tissues.
The daily records of passing events are full of sad data, painfully illustrating the folly of neglecting disease of the brain and mind in its incipient stage.
Fatal attacks of apoplexy, serious cases of alarming paralysis, incurable conditions of softening of the brain, lamentable instances of insanity, suicide, homicide, and murder, are matters of daily occurrence, springing out of unobserved and neglected affections of the brain and mind.
It is with the view of exciting a deeper interest in, and of awakening a profounder and more philosophical attention to this important subject, that these pages have been penned.
That this work (of which two large editions have been sold within three years) has been productive of much practical good admits of easy and satisfactory demonstration. Cerebral symptoms that were too commonly overlooked, or, if noticed, viewed as insignificant, are now properly considered as symptomatic of threatening brain and mental disease. Thus mischievous maladies have been detected in the incipient stage and placed under arrest, whilst appropriate medical measures have been adopted for their mitigation and cure. For these known results I have every reason to be grateful.