THE DESCRIPTION OF THE HUMAN BODY
INTRODUCTION
The Description of the Human Body covers very roughly the same ground as the unpublished Treatise on the Human Being. It is interesting to see how little Descartes’ position had changed from his first projected publication to the book he was working on when he died. The two works were first published together by Clerselier in 1664. It was written in French. I have translated it from Adam and Tannery, Volume XI, and page numbers in square brackets refer to that edition. The extract is the whole of the Preface.