178 CRUSTACEANS 



laid by the deceased professor, have been built upon in 

 workmanlike fashion by Mr. Geoffrey Smith; so that 

 we have now in the complete series a succinct manual 

 of the whole of animated nature in accordance with the 

 latest scientific research. 



To give an exhaustive account of crustacean life 

 would require not one volume, but many volumes. Yet, 

 although the editors of the Cambridge series have 

 adopted a popular standard, it is popular in the best 

 sense of the word ; there is nothing superficial nothing 

 to gratify a mere appetite for the wonderful; their 

 purpose has been to use language intelligible to readers 

 devoid of specialised training. 



And in no branch of zoology is concentrated 

 specialism more needful than in the study of crustacean 

 life. The great majority of creatures in that class, as 

 has been said, inhabit the water, which is a serious 

 obstacle to amateur observation ; when it is added that 

 myriad species are microscopic, and that it is in Arctic 

 and Antarctic seas that they most greatly abound, the 

 individual who applies himself seriously to master their 

 biology, classification, and habits can have little time 

 left for any other work. 



Copepods, minute crustaceans, whereof different 

 species inhabit salt or fresh water, exhibit the most 

 fantastic variety of structure. It is perhaps well for us 

 humans that they are of microscopic proportions, that 

 we cannot examine them except through a powerful 

 lens, and need not do that unless we choose. For if a 

 lobster is a freak animal, some of these copepods are 

 veritable nightmares, and it would be at the risk of a 



