PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 



T F we may accept the hypothesis, generally acknowledged, 

 * that efficiency of the few is attained only under the 

 stimulas of the inefficient many, no apology is needed for 

 another . addition to the already numerous text-books in 

 existence. It is questionable whether it is possible to 

 provide the student with a book which can entirely take 

 the place of oral instruction, but it is intended in the 

 present work to provide the necessary accompaniment to 

 a well-ordered course of lectures and practical work. 

 Although there are still science " Schools " in existence in 

 which practical instruction is entirely neglected or relegated 

 to unqualified teachers, the importance of this branch of 

 education is being generally recognised : hence I have 

 written the discriptions of the types in this book, and in 

 the majority of cases have drawn the figures, with the 

 animals (or the parts of them) before me, in order that 

 the work may be found an aid to dissection as well as a 

 preparation for written examinations. 



So far as is possible the scope of the work has been 

 largely modelled on the subject " Natural History," as 

 interpreted in our Scottish Universities, and the method 

 of instruction by types has been adhered to as conducing 

 to the best results. 



In a volume of this kind which must necessarily hold in 

 view the necessities of examinations, there is a very definite 

 limit to the introduction of new features of classification 

 or even of new types, and a continual check has to be* 

 applied to the inclination to add this or that new result. 



