Beauty: Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classificatin of Beauty in Woman

BEAUTY; ILLUSTRATED CHIEFLY BY AN ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN,
BY ALEXANDER WALKER, AUTHOR OF “INTERMARRIAGE,” “WOMAN,” “PHYSIOGNOMY FOUNDED ON PHYSIOLOGY,” “THE NERVOUS SYSTEM,” ETC.
EDITED BY AN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN
NEW YORK: HENRY G. LANGLEY, 8 ASTOR-HOUSE. 1845.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, By J. & H. G. LANGLEY, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York STEREOTYPED BY J. S. REDFIELD, 13 Chambers Street, New York

GEORGE BIRBECK, M.D., F.G.S., PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION, &c., &c., &c.
A department of science, which in many respects must be regarded as new, cannot so properly be dedicated to any one as to the inventor of the best mode of diffusing scientific knowledge among the most meritorious and most oppressed classes of society.
When the enemies of freedom, in order effectually to blind the victims of their spoliation, imposed a tax upon knowledge, you rendered the acquirement of science easy by the establishment of mechanics’ institutions—you gave the first and greatest impulse to that diffusion of knowledge which will render the repetition of such a conspiracy against humanity impossible.
You more than once also wrested a reluctant concession, in behalf of untaxed knowledge, from the men who had evidently succeeded, in some degree, to the spirit, as well as to the office, of the original conspirators, and who unwisely hesitated between the bad interest which is soon felt by all participators in expensive government, and their dread of the new and triumphant power of public opinion, before which they know and feel that they are but as the chaff before the whirlwind.
For these services, accept this respectful dedication, as the expression of a homage, in which I am sure that I am joined by thousands of Britons.
Nor, in writing this, on a subject of which your extensive knowledge enables you so well to judge, am I without a peculiar and personal motive.