PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



The extreme specialization in biology, so characteristic to the present 

 era, has increasingly narrowed the working sphere of the individual, while, 

 pari passu, demanding his acquaintance with many related sciences so 

 that he may safely sound the depth of his own. To facilitate the necessary 

 intelhgent reading of foreign literature the compilation of this lexicon was 

 undertaken; perhaps an imprudent task if one considers the many fields 

 one must cover and the hours one must give to such an undertaking. 

 There will be willful, also regrettable, omissions and, I trust, but few 

 inaccuracies; yet, "if you are [better informed in your own particular 

 field, kindly correct the mistakes and let me know; else use this book as I 

 do" (Horace). 



It was necessary to keep the size and with it the price of the volume 

 within certain limits. Therefore all words of Latin and Greek derivation 

 have been omitted whenever the English equivalent would essentially 

 have been only a repetition. Where such words have been used those 

 beginning with Ca, Co and Cu, if not found under the letter C, should be 

 looked for under K. Likewise, words of the same derivation beginning 

 with Ka, Ko and Ku, if not found under K, should be looked for under C. 

 In numerous instances the lack of proper English words has made neces- 

 sary the explanation of the German term rather than a translation of it. 



In the new German spelling many mute letters, found in older literature, 

 have been omitted. This applies especially to the letter h following t 

 in such words as Thräne (now written Träne) ; or Thai (now written Tal). , 

 Since it is impossible to include all compounds, the reader will in most 

 cases be able to approximate the meaning of a word from its component 

 parts. Thus the meaning of a word like Drüsenr-bläschen could be ap- 

 proached if either the first or the second part of the compound were Hsted. 

 This would apply to many other words and the task would be the less 

 hazardous the greater the readers knowledge of the German prefixes, 

 suffixes, and prepositions that are frequently used in compounding words. 



Supplementing the text with illustrations was decided in the last moment. 

 There was, therefore, no time and, withal, no real need to prepare original 

 illustrations. Many of the figures have been redrawn from standard 

 textbooks such as Grey, Hooker and Hertwig, others from scientific 

 papers (Cobb, Steiner, Snodgrass), while a few are from original line 

 drawings. 



E. A. 



Washington, D. C, March, 1930. 



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