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NOTICE.

THE series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is published under the following circumstances:

The RIGHT HONOURABLE and REVEREND FRANCIS HENRY, EARL of BRIDGEWATER, died in the month of February, 1829; and by his last Will and Testament, bearing date the 25th of February, 1825, he directed certain Trustees therein named to invest in the public funds the sum of eight thousand pounds sterling; this sum, with the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal of the President, for the time being, of the Royal Society of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated by him. The Testator further directed, that the person or persons selected by the said President should be appointed to write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation ; illustrating such work by all reasonable arguments; as for instance the variety and formation of God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion; the construction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of other arguments; as also by discoveries ancient and modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature. He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale of the works so published should be paid to the authors of the works.

The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq. requested the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Bishop of London, in determining upon the best mode of carrying into effect the intentions of the Testator. Acting with their advice, and with the concurrence of a nobleman immediately connected with the deceased, Mr. Davies Gilbert appointed the following eight gentlemen to write separate Treatises on the different branches of the subject, as here stated:

THOU MADEST HIM TO HAVE DOMIMION OVER THE WORKS OF THY HANDS; THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET.

PSALM VIII. 6.

ADAPTATION OF EXTERNAL

NATURE

TO THE

PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN,

PRINCIPALLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE SUPPLY OF HIS WANTS,
AND THE EXERCISE OF HIS INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES,

Robert Froup Paine
Harvard College.

BY JOHN KIDD, M.D. F.R.S.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

Philadelphia:

CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD.

........

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TO

HIS GRACE

THE

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

MY LORD,

HAVING been appointed to write the following Treatise by the late President of the Royal Society, in consequence of your Grace's recommendation, it was natural that I should be desirous of publicly acknowledging the high honour thus conferred upon

me.

I therefore request you to accept my respectful thanks for permitting me to inscribe this Treatise with your Grace's name: assuring you that, however inadequately I may have been found to answer your expectation in the execution, I have not applied myself to the task committed to me, without the exertion of much thought, and the strongest desire of so executing it, as to justify your Grace's favourable opinion.

I have the honour to be,

MY LORD,

with the greatest respect,

Your Grace's most obliged

and obedient Servant,

J. KIDD.

OXFORD, March 15, 1833.

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