PREFACE 



The following work has just appeared iu ^London as 

 a portion of a series entitled Orr^s Circle of the Sciences. 

 Believing that a treatise of so much value was worthy of 

 an independent position and a permanent form, the pub- 

 lishers issue it separately. Written by the most distin- 

 guished osteologist of the age, as an introduction to his 

 favorite science, it cannot fail to possess great interest 

 and value to all students of Zoology, Comparative Ana- 

 tomy, and Geology, of which departments of knowledge 

 Osteology may now be regarded as the foundation. As 

 indicative of the principles which have guided the author 

 in his labors, the following paragraphs are extracted from 

 the Preface to the Circle of the Sciences. 



"In regard to the structure and conformation of that 

 great division of the Animal Kingdom called 'the Verte- 

 brate,' to which Man himself belongs, and which includes 

 the animals that most resemble Man, it has been deemed 

 sufficient for present purposes to restrict the Essay to the 

 fundamental structures or framework of the body, with 

 the appendages of a like enduring material called the 



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