Not to dispute with you--far from it! I own with sorrow that your
severity does occasionally encounter us on assailable ground. But there
are exceptions, even to the stiffest rules. Some of us are not guilty
of wilful carelessness: some of us apply to competent authority, when
we write on subjects beyond the range of our own experience. Having
thus far ventured to speak for my colleagues, you will conclude that I
am paving the way for speaking next of myself. As our cousins in the
United States say--that is so.

In the following pages, there are allusions to medical practice at the
bedside; leading in due course to physiological questions which connect
themselves with the main interest of the novel. In traversing this
delicate ground, you have not been forgotten. Before the manuscript
went to the printer, it was submitted for correction to an eminent
London surgeon, whose experience extends over a period of forty years.

Again: a supposed discovery in connection with brain disease, which
occupies a place of importance, is not (as you may suspect) the
fantastic product of the author's imagination. Finding his materials
everywhere, he has even contrived to make use of Professor
Ferrier--writing on the "Localisation of Cerebral Disease," and closing
a confession of the present result of post-mortem examination of brains
in these words: "We cannot even be sure, whether many of the changes
discovered are the cause or the result of the Disease, or whether the
two are the conjoint results of a common cause." Plenty of elbow room
here for the spirit of discovery.

On becoming acquainted with "Mrs. Gallilee," you will find her
talking--and you will sometimes even find the author talking--of