PREFACE 



SOME years ago a course of instruction in Mammalian Anatomy 

 was devised and conducted at the University of Pennsylvania by the 

 present writer, in the belief that a careful and exhaustive study of the 

 structure of an inferior animal would be an excellent preparation for 

 the study of human anatomy and would form a foundation broad 

 enough for more extended work in morphology. 



The animal selected as best fulfilling all requisites was the cat, 

 which in certain anatomical regards approaches more nearly to man 

 than the dog ; it is not specialized for any one mode of life, like the 

 rabbit, and is of convenient size and easily obtained. 



The interest and progress of the students and the effect upon their 

 subsequent studies early demonstrated the value of this course. Great 

 difficulty, however, was encountered in teaching accuracy and the 

 observation of detail, and much time was lost through the repetition 

 of lectures and demonstrations, owing to the fact that none of the 

 existing text-books sufficiently covered the ground, or emphasized the 

 close relationship between the anatomy of the inferior animal and the 

 anatomy of man. 



It was to supply this need that these pages were begun ; and as 

 they continued it seemed possible that, if what was at first a mere 

 outline should be enlarged into a text-book, the study of anatomy 

 might be more generally encouraged and disseminated through our 

 higher schools and colleges, and a student, even a very young student, 

 boy or girl, working alone, perhaps at home, might be enabled to 

 master unaided essential facts without laboratory facilities and remote 

 from the repulsiveness of the dissecting-room. This volume is the 

 result, and the first of a series which aims to present a, more accurate 

 and more comprehensive description of the structure of a typical 

 mammal than has been hitherto attempted. This treatise may be 

 therefore regarded as a monograph on a typical mammal, and be em- 



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