PREFACE. 



UTILITY, more than either originality of contents or ele- 

 gance of phraseology, has been the author's principal object in 

 the following pages. He has endeavored to gather together in 

 one volume, attainable at a moderate price, an arranged 

 and easily consulted record of the entire Materia Medica Ani- 

 malia, and he believes no attempt of a similar description has 

 ever been made. To effect this object he has obtained aid 

 from the best living authorities, as well as from their pub- 

 lished works ; but he has not neglected those of other periods, 

 where he has found in them directions upon which the mod- 

 erns have suggested no improvements. 



Of all departments of science, there is perhaps no single 

 one capable of exercising such an advantageous influence 

 on the mind of the cultivator as Natural History, in any of 

 its departments. Every kind of knowledge has in it some- 

 thing that is valuable ; for even if it be of no direct utility 

 in the ordinary concerns of the world, the acquirement of 

 it is a useful exercise to the mental faculties, and the posses- 

 sion of it may operate in a most beneficial manner on the 

 habitual feelings, and give a corresponding direction to the 

 whole course of life. 



It is desirable to cherish correct views of the benefits of 

 different kinds of knowledge, that those may choose most 

 advantageously for themselves whom the necessary business 

 of life debars from the extended pursuit of it; and without 

 undervaluing other particular branches of science, it may be 

 safely affirmed that any department of Natural History is 

 capable of affording more to interest and instruct, more to 

 refresh and relax, the well-disposed mind, on a very slight 

 acquaintance with it, than any other pursuit. Not a step 

 can the learner advance in it, but he meets with wonders 



