PREFACE. Vll 



lioinelj attire at half price to the Zoological Gardens on 

 Mondays, talk of the Elephant, the Ehinoceros, and the 

 Hippopotamus. These derivations from the Greek are 

 no harder to them than the Saxon monosyllabic names 

 of the bear, the seal, or the lion; and yet the four sylla- 

 bled and five-syllabled names above cited are longer than 

 the average of the technical terms derived from the same 

 learned and pliable language : for example, Alisphenoid 

 is not really harder than rhinoceros, nor ISTeurapophysis 

 than hippopotamus; and when the mind becomes as 

 familiar with the things of which these are the verbal 

 signs, they fall naturally and easily into the circulating 

 medium for the currency of thought. To the intelligent 

 reader of every class, who may be blessed with the healthy 

 desire for the attainment of knowledge, let it then be 

 said: Be not dismayed with the array of 'hard words' 

 which seems to bar your path in its acquisition. Where 

 such words are invented or adopted by the masters in 

 science, be assured that your acquisition and retention of 

 their meaning will be the safest 'first steps' in the science 

 of your choice. 



" Where plain and known words of Saxon or old Eng- 

 lish root could convey the meaning intended, the writers 

 have sedulously striven to use them instead of terms of 

 more exotic origin. But where the signification of a 

 thing, or group of things, would have demanded a round- 

 about explanation, or peri phrase, as the alternative for 

 abandoning the single- worded and clearly defined tech- 



