PREFACE. 



The following pages, which contain directions for the 

 practical study of the anatomy of a Chelonian, are 

 the first instalment of a series which has had its origin 

 in my own needs as a teacher, and which, when com- 

 pleted, will form a Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection. 

 Some years ago Professor Huxley published a little 

 book called '^Practical Biology," in the preparation of 

 which it was my good fortune to assist him. That book 

 was designed to give students commencing the study 

 of biology a good knowledge, based on their own ob- 

 servations, of the structure and life-history of a number 

 of typical plants and animals, with the object of laying 

 a firm foundation for the further study of animal or 

 vegetable morphology or physiology : it was, so far as 

 I know, the first important educational step taken in 

 recognition of the fact that there is a science of living 

 beings, as such, quite apart from any division of them 

 into animals and plants ; and that the accurate observa- 

 tion of the phenomena presented by living forms of 

 matter of all varieties forms the basis of one single 

 science. This truth had, of course, been recognized 

 long before, and was accepted by nearly all scientific 



