PREFACE. 



VKKY little need be said by \vay of preface to the 

 present volume, for the history of the work by Canon 

 Norman in the first volume forms a most appropriate 

 preface to the whole monograph. 



There he relates how Joshua Alder prepared for 

 the British Museum a 'Catalogue of British Tuni- 

 eata'; how when the publication of such Catalogues 

 was for want of funds discontinued, Alder sought the 

 aid of his friend Albany Hancock in working out the 



f/ 



anatomy and physiology of the Class with a view to 

 rendering the work suitable for publication by the 

 Bay Society ; how, after its acceptance by the Society, 

 the death of Alder in 18(57 and of Hancock in 1873 

 put a stop to its completion ; and finally how the 

 MS. and drawings were entrusted to Prof. Huxley 

 who undertook their preparation for publication, but 

 after an interval of four years returned them as he 

 found that he could not spare time to prepare them 

 for the press. Canon Norman then relates how on 

 his suggestion the work was again offered to the Kay 

 Society. 



The MS, (a transcript of the original which had 

 been lost), and the drawings, were placed in my hands 

 early in January, 1904, and at a meeting of the 

 Council in the same month the work was for the 

 second time accepted for publication by the Society. 

 The first volume was issued in April. 1905, the second 

 in January, 1907, and by the publication of the present 

 volume it is completed. 



It is not however a complete work, being as 

 stated on the title-page "an unfinished monograph," 

 and this in a double sense, for the authors had not 



