PREFACE. 



The desire to acquire a knowledge of the structure of some 

 portion at least of the Animal Kingdom, now becoming so 

 general, is often checked by the difficulty of determining 

 where to make a beginning amid the vast extent and 

 variety of the materials at hand. 



I have selected for my first course of lectures on Com- 

 parative Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons, the 

 structure and modifications of the Skeleton, because, as 

 the framework around which the rest of the body is built 

 up, it gives, more than any other system, an outline of the 

 general organization of the whole animal, and also because 

 it is the most convenient for study, on account of the 

 facility with which it can be preserved and examined. 



Moreover, Osteology has special importance in com- 

 parison with the study of any other system, inasmuch as 

 large numbers of animals, all in fact of those not at 

 present existing on the earth, can be known to us by 

 little else than the form of their bones. 



In endeavouring to gain anatomical knowledge, it sig- 

 nifies little with which group of animals a commencement 

 is made. 



