AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO PART I 1 



WHEN requested by the publishers to undertake a new edition of 

 Dr. Oscar Schmidt's Text-book of Comparative Anatomy, I found that this 

 could only be done in one of two ways. Either the revision must be 

 limited to trivial alterations, and to a different choice and a greater 

 number of illustrations, or the book must be entirely re-written. I 

 chose the latter course, which the great advance made in zoological 

 research seemed to render unavoidable. The result is the Text-book of 

 Comparative Anatomy, the first part of which I now publish. 



In compiling the book I have endeavoured to do full justice to 

 the numerous important results of the research of the last decades. I 

 have been less anxious to supply a complete and detailed compendium 

 of Comparative Anatomy than to emphasise those points which it seems 

 to me are deserving of special attention. The present work in many 

 respects exceeds the limits till now usually assigned to text-books of 

 Comparative Anatomy. It contains, separated as far as possible from 

 the portion devoted to the main subject, the elements of Compara- 

 tive Embryology, which will perhaps not be unwelcome to many 

 students. Following Oscar Schmidt's example, I have prefaced the 

 Comparative Anatomy of the different animal races by short systematic 

 reviews, which may be of use to the student of systematic zoology. 

 The book had also to contain what was necesary for the zoological 

 education of the medical student. 



All these parts, not necessarily belonging to the domain of 

 Comparative Anatomy, and also many theoretical discussions, are 

 distinguished from the rest by smaller print. 



1 The first part consisted of the first four chapters of this volume. 



