PREFACE.
This work originated some years ago in an effort to find a certain technical term to express an idea which had temporarily escaped our minds, and which was needed in the course of some literary investigations we were pursuing at the time.
The lengthy search and the great number of books that had to be consulted before the required term could be found suggested the urgent necessity of a work of reference that might be of assistance to others placed in a like situation.
After a thorough search of the Library of the Surgeon–General's Office at Washington, finding that no such work existed, we decided to attempt to supply this defect in Medical Lexicography.
Since the inception of the idea we have labored for three years in the attempt to consummate this plan. The work involved in such an undertaking, as can readily be understood, has been enormously augmented from the fact that no prototype existed which could be used as a model.
To give a complete list of the works we have had occasion to consult in the course of the preparation of the Thesaurus is unnecessary, the list being large and comprehensive, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other works of reference, monographs, etc. A few books, however, have been of especial value, and deserve to be mentioned; for example, the "Terminologia Medica Polyglotta," by Maxwell; "Nomenclature of Disease " of the Royal College of
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