DEDICATION 



To SIR E. RAY LANKESTER, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S. 



DEAR SIR RAY, 



Twenty years have elapsed since I 

 published my first preliminary note under your 

 guidance, and sixteen since I endeavoured to make 

 a scanty return by dedicating a volume to you. 



If there was a reason then, there must be a two- 

 fold reason now for associating your name with a 

 book of this nature, the one to balance the other. 



To you, with your intimate and apostolic know- 

 ledge of the situation, and mastery of the facts which 

 govern it, it may seem rash to attempt anything 

 like a revision of first principles ; but having regard 

 to the actual state of zoological speculation, yesterday 

 or to-day, it is clear that much remains to be done 

 before the ground can be freed from many of the 

 qualities which favour the growth of error. 



Yours sincerely, 



A. WILLEY. 



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