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.