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 _histologi- 
cal, of an actual animal. For this purpose the frog has been 
selected as being convenient to dissect, easy to obtain, and a 
fairly typical example of the great group of Vertebrate animals. 
Where, from its small size or for other reason, the frog 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 
the work here given the first time he goes over it. The dis- 
section of the muscles and of the cranial nerves should only be 
attempted if time remain after the other work is completed. 
