XXU PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



Besides this, there is an excellent work of M. Tiedemann on 

 the anatomy of the Echinodermata that received the prize of 

 the Institute some years ago, that will shortly appear it will 

 leave nothing unsaid with respect to these curious animals. 

 The Corals and the Infusoria, allowing no field for anatomical 

 investigations, have been briefly disposed of. The new work 

 of M. de Lamarck will supply my deficiencies(l). 



With respect to authors, I can only mention, here, those 

 who have furnished me with general views, or who were the 

 origin of such in my own mind(2). There are many others 

 to whom I am indebted for particular facts, whose names I 

 have carefully quoted wherever I have made use of them. 

 They will be found on every page of my book. Should I 

 have omitted to do justice to any, it must be attributed to in- 

 voluntary forgetfulness no property, in my eyes, is more 

 sacred than the conceptions of the mind, and the custom, too 

 common among naturalists, of making plagiarisms by a change 

 of names, has always appeared to me a crime. 



The publication of my Comparative Anatomy will now 

 occupy m every moment ; the materials are ready, great 

 quantities of preparations and drawings are finished and ar- 

 ranged ; and I shall be careful in dividing the work into parts, 

 each of which will form a whole, so that should my physical 

 powers prove insufficient for the completion of the totality of 

 my plan, what I shall have produced will still form entire 

 suites, and the materials I have collected be ready for the 

 hand of him who may undertake the continuation of my la- 

 bours. 



Jar din du Boi, 1816. 



(1) I have tills moment received, I'Histoire des Poli/piers coralligenes Jlexibles of 

 M. Lamouroux, which furnishes an excellent supplement to M. Lamarck. 



(2) M. de nlainville has recently published general zoolog-ical tables, which I 

 regret came too late for me to profit by; having appeared when my book was nearly 

 printed. 



