The principal hospital of the Austrian capital, the largest in the world, offers very extensive opportunities and unusual facilities for the cultivation of Pathological Anatomy. Exclusive of the Lying-in Hospital and the Lunatic Asylum, which occupy the same range of buildings, the Kaiserlich-Koniglich-Allgemeine-Krankenhaus1 (Imperial Royal General Hospital) contains 104 wards, capable of receiving 2214 patients; 1247 beds being destined for males, and 967 for females. "We find that, in 1838,2 the number of patients treated amounted to 20,545; of these, 2678 died, giving a mortality of 13.03 per cent., or one death in 7.6 cases. As I am not provided with tables of mortality for other years, I am unable to state the annual average mortality in the hospital; but it does not appear, by a comparison with the mortuary tables of the Viennese Foundling Hospital, that the year 1838 was marked by peculiar endemic or epidemic influences. By the laws of the hospital, post-mortem examinations may be made of all who die within its walls.4 "To examine all, or one half, would be impossible;" but as "generally from four to six bodies are opened daily,"5 the extent of the field presented for cadaveric research may easily be estimated. For a series of years, the Professorship of Pathological Anatomy has been held by Dr. Carl Rokitansky, and the numbers of medical men of all nations who are attracted to Vienna by him, are the best evidence of the manner in which he has availed himself of the opportunities at his disposal. All who have been fortunate enough to attend the Professor's demonstrations, will be able to award him the praise of untiring industry, of acute judgment, and candid research. Records of every case, taken down at the dictation of the Professor, are kept, and all interesting specimens are preserved for the Pathological Museum. Rokitansky has embodied the facts observed, and the conclusions deduced from them, in his "Hand-buch der Pathologischen Anatomie," published in Vienna during the years 1841-1846. The original forms three large octavo volumes; of which the third, containing the Pathological Anatomy of the Organs of Respiration and Nutrition, and of the Uro-Genital Tract, appeared first; the second, embracing the Morbid Anatomy of the remaining Organs and Systems of the Body, followed; and the first, in which the Professor gives a philosophical survey of the entire Science of Morbid Anatomy, was published last. The Council of the Sydenham Society have determined upon issuing the translation in a similar sequence. Owing to the acknowledged difficulty of the author's style, it has however been thought advisable to divide the translation into four volumes, each of which is intrusted to a different editor.

1 Knolz, Darstellung der Humanitats und Heilanstalten Wiens, etc. Wien, 1840, p. 169. Wilde, Austria and its Institutions. Dublin, 1843, p. 124.

2 Knolz, 1. c. p. 316. 4 lb. 1. c. p. 190.

3 lb. 1. c. p. 56.

5 Wilde, I.e. p. 180.

The present volume contains the morbid anatomy of the Digestive Apparatus and the Uro-Genital Viscera, which constitute the greater part of the third volume of the original. The succeeding two volumes will embrace the remaining portion of the third, and the second volume of the original, and each of these will be complete in themselves, as far as regards the Special Pathology of the parts of which they treat. The first volume, which contains the Principles or Theory of Morbid Anatomy, is a scientific expose of the deductions and inferences drawn by the author from the facts and illustrations given in the other sections of the work, and will be the last to appear. His views, as laid down in the volume of General Morbid Anatomy, are unintelligible to one who has not previously studied the volumes of Special Pathology; this accounts for the apparent inconsistency of publishing the translation in the order adopted. "Were it not that the Council of the Society have desired to adhere as much as could conveniently be done to the original, the present volume might with perfect propriety have been termed the first, and the succeeding volumes have been numbered in the order of their publication.

The fact of the Work having been selected for translation by the Council of the Sydenham Society, is in itself a proof that it is deserving of the high estimation in which it has been held by all pathologists acquainted with continental literature; but it may not be superfluous to state that the value of the Professor's remarks is enhanced by his being entirely unfettered by preconceived notions or prejudiced views, as to the disease of the individual brought to the dead-house for examination. "Bokitansky," as Mr. Wilde correctly remarks, "differs from all other pathologists, in not engaging in the study or treatment of disease during life; he is not a practical physician, and seldom sees one of the many hundreds of cases, whose bodies he dissects.". English readers will probably sometimes desire more positive statistical data than the author vouchsafes, and I cannot but express a hope that in the new edition which Professor Rokitansky is preparing, he will in some measure repair an omission, which necessarily weakens his conclusions, and deprives them of that basis which the student looks for in pathological anatomy, more even than in other departments of the natural sciences. I may, however, venture to assert, that no one will read his descriptions of post-mortem appearances without feeling convinced that they are drawings from nature.

Of the difficulties connected with the translation, I will only say that they are much increased by the figurative style of the author. He constantly uses terms in a sense peculiar to himself, and his total disregard for the ordinary rules of composition is an additional and frequent source of obscurity. It has been necessary to adopt a few terms in the translation which, though new to the reader, have been thought to convey most accurately the peculiar and idiomatic expressions of Professor Rokitansky; this has not, however, been done except where no word or phrase familiar to British pathologists could be found exactly to convey the meaning of the author.

In regard to the translation generally, I can only express a hope that I have not perverted the sense of the original by the necessary reconstruction of many passages, nor that, in adhering too closely to the German, I have failed in making the English edition readable.

In conclusion, I avail myself of this opportunity to acknowledge the honor conferred upon me by the request of the Council of the Sydenham Society to undertake the translation; and I have great pleasure in recording the obligations which I am under to Dr. J. R. Bennett, the Secretary of the Society, for the courtesy and assistance he has afforded me while the work was going through the press.

E. S.

Brook Street, Grosvenor Square.