PREFACE. 
HE completion of the present volume, the 
first and only one ever published devoted 
exclusively to the Slugs of the British Isles, 
is a matter of considerable satisfaction, and 
I trust that the information presented here- 
with on their variation, habits, structure, 
geographical and geological distribution 
will aid in the advancement and further 
popularization of a study in which of late years so great an amount of 
interest has been displayed; and consequently it seems a fitting and 
appropriate occasion on which to include in the Introduction a brief 
review of the history and progress of Limacology in this country, detailing 
the rise of the present interest in the group, and the individuals and 
causes leading to this gratifying result. 
The study of Limacology has, however, never been a general one, for 
although many of the species are undeniably of great beauty, with bright 
and vivid colouring, frequently variegated, or banded with darker mark- 
ings of pleasing arrangement, yet the handling of these otherwise beautiful 
animals, and the difficulty of their satisfactory preservation in collec- 
tions, have always been very serious drawbacks to the popularization of 
their study. 
