TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



THE present translation was undertaken, in the first instance, by my 

 friend and former colleague Mr. F. E. Beddard, who found, on his ap- 

 pointment to the Prosectorship of the Zoological Society, that his 

 leisure was insufficient to allow of his completing the work, and 

 therefore made the proposal that I should carry it forward. The 

 manuscript which he .had already prepared was handed to me, and 

 contained an admirable rendering of the first half-dozen sheets, which, 

 with few modifications, is here reproduced. 



As regards my own share of the work, but little needs to be said : 

 not even those reviewers who so persistently, and in many cases so 

 reasonably, decry the translation of German text-books, will require 

 an apology for an attempt to render more widely known in this 

 country a work which has long since attained the rank of a classic in 

 its native land. 



No pains have been spared to present the English reader with a 

 faithful rendering of the original ; and the supervision which the 

 Author has exercised over the proof-sheets not only furnishes a 

 guarantee that he has not been misrepresented, but has also rendered 

 it unnecessary for me to do anything in the way of bringing the work 

 up to the times. A number of passages which in the course of time 

 had become antiquated were cut out by the Author, who also supplied 

 other paragraphs containing the results of more recent researches. 

 These have all been placed in brackets, and are followed by the initials 

 of the Author. The few additional remarks which I have thought it 

 necessary to make are in all cases indicated by my own initials. 



