[T]he lectures… may be expected to remain tolerably commensurate to the state of the sciences for a much longer period; since, in investigations so intimately connected with mathematical principles, the essential improvements will always bear a very small proportion to the number of innovations. …the references, which it contains, are… sufficient to lead those, who may consult the passages quoted, to the works of every author of eminence that has treated of the respective subjects.
The fundamental doctrines of motion have [herein]… been more immediately referred to axioms simply mathematical than has hitherto been usual; and the application of these doctrines to practical purposes has [herein]… been facilitated.
I have resolved to confine my studies and my pen to medical subjects only. For the talents which God has not given me, I am not responsible, but those which I possess, I have hitherto cultivated and employed as diligently as my opportunities have allowed me to do; and I shall continue to apply them with assiduity, and in tranquillity, to that profession which has constantly been the ultimate object of all my labours.
The historical part of the work can scarcely be called new, but several of the circumstances, which are related, have escaped the notice of former writers on the history of the sciences.