PREFATORY NOTE 



THE discovery of the economic importance of ticks as carriers of 

 disease to man and domesticated animals has led to a vast increase 

 of our knowledge of this group. No existing work in any language 

 attempts to deal with the subject in a comprehensive manner, and the 

 student is confronted with a very extensive and widely scattered 

 literature from which he derives an impression of hopeless confusion. 

 There is therefore urgent need for a work of the nature here attempted. 



The book will deal with the Classification, Structure and Biology of 

 Ticks, the study of the group having occupied the authors for several 

 years. Practically all that has been published on the subject has 

 received adequate consideration. The parts on Classification have 

 entailed much labour since it was found necessary to revise a large 

 amount of the work which has been done by others. The book will be 

 very fully illustrated by numerous text figures and plates, the majority 

 of which are original, the remainder reproduced from the best sources. 



It was at first intended to publish a full account of the Ixodoidea 

 or Ticks as a complete volume, but the increasing demand for a work 

 dealing with this group of parasites has caused us to decide to issue 

 without delay the part relating to the Argasidae. Other parts will 

 follow, and the whole, we hope, will be ready in about a year. 



The parts will be complete in themselves but are designed to form 

 a volume of about 500 pages when all the parts have been published. 

 Each part will be issued in a stiff paper cover and will include a 

 bibliography printed on one side of thin paper so that the references 

 can be conveniently cut out and gummed on index cards. A complete 

 bibliography, including all the publications cited in each part, will 

 conclude the volume. 



In the text the Harvard system of references is adopted, the year 

 and page of the authors' papers being added after their names. Unless 

 otherwise stated all the authors cited have been consulted in the 

 original. The completed volume will also contain an- adequate intro- 

 duction, which we think it better to omit for the present. 



Cambridge 



August 1908 



