第1章 DEDICATION

To Monsieur J. B. Nacquart, Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine.

Dear Doctor--Here is one of the most carefully hewn stones in the second course of the foundation of a literary edifice which I have slowly and laboriously constructed. I wish to inscribe your name upon it, as much to thank the man whose science once saved me as to honor the friend of my daily life.

De Balzac.