jj INTRODUCTION. 



Our system of publication, even if it were not limited in 

 means and burdened with local restrictions, would still sufifer 

 from defects of method that admit of no remedy. The inac- 

 cessibility of our literature — scattered as it is among the 

 publications of so many societies and institutions, and mixed 

 up with a mass of heterogeneous matter that has no value 

 for a zoologist — is notorious. The mixed character and 

 scattered sources of our publications are twin evils that have 

 become intolerable both at home and abroad. The establish- 

 ment of the Journal of Morphology may not be the death- 

 blow to these evils ; but there is hope that it will, at least, relieve 

 the more embarrassing difficulties of the present situation. 



It is unnecessary to expatiate on the advantages offered by 

 such a medium of publication. They have long been acknowl- 

 edged, appreciated, and enjoyed by those who have occupied 

 themselves with the biological sciences in other countries. 

 Germany, France, England, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Italy, 

 Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland have their morphological 

 journals ; and the number supported in each country may be 

 taken as an index of its productivity in morphological research. 



We have not hitherto followed the example of other nations 

 in this particular ; but we venture to say that the time has come 

 when at least one morphological journal should and can be 

 creditably maintained. Our confidence is based on the fact 

 that we now have several flourishing morphological laboratories 

 established in this country; on the hearty assurances of support 

 given by those who represent the principal centres of research 

 in the United States and Canada ; and on the character and 

 number of the contributions offered for the first volume. 



As previously announced, the JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY 

 will be devoted principally to embryological, anatomical, and 

 histological subjects. Although limited in a general way to 

 animal morphology, it has not been thought necessary to make 

 this fact prominent in the title. 



The Journal will be issued in numbers, each containing from 

 one hundred and fifty to two hundred or more pages, and from 

 eight to ten lithographic plates. The second number, com- 

 pleting the first volume, will appear in November. 



It is hardly practicable, and perhaps it is not desirable, to 



