PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The Owens College Course of Elementary Biology, which forms 

 part of the scheme of study prescribed by the Victoria Univer- 

 sity, is of a rather more extended and comprehensive nature 

 than the courses held elsewhere under the same name; and 

 experience has shown me that there is want of a book that will 

 guide and direct the student through the practical part of his 

 work, the whole ground of which is covered by no one of the 

 existing manuals. It is to meet this want that the present 

 little work has been prepared. 



This first instalment of the work consists of an Introduction, 

 containing practical instruction in the methods employed in 

 biological investigation ; followed by the application of these 

 methods to the examination, both anatomical and histological, 

 of an actual animal. For this purpose the frog has been 

 selected as being easy to obtain, convenient to dissect, and a 

 fairly typical example of the great group of Vertebrate animals. 

 Where, from its small size or for other reason, the frog has 

 proved unsuitable, other animals have been substituted for it. 



For convenience of reference, and in order to definitely stamp 

 the practical character of the work, directions for dissection, 

 etc., have throughout been printed in italics. 



It is not expected that the student should do the whole of 



