PREFACE. 



THE PURPOSE of this work is twofold : first, to give plain, definite, and precise 

 directions for the preparation and examination of the animal tissues ; and, secondly, 

 to ensure that the student executes a drawing of the majority of the microscopic 

 specimens which he makes for preservation. For this purpose a series of Outline 

 Plates is issued with the text. 



The author has endeavoured to give a faithful account of the methods which he 

 has found to be most useful for the preparation of each of the tissues and organs of 

 the body for microscopic purposes. No method is introduced which he has not 

 found from repeated trials to be successful. The methods described are those 

 which, after nine years' experience in the teaching of practical histology, he has 

 found to be really reliable. 



In the introductory chapter a short account is given of the microscope and how 

 to use it ; but no attempt is made to explain the optical principles on which it is 

 constructed, as the author believes that such details are better omitted in a work 

 like the present. The reader is therefore referred for such details to any of the 

 numerous works upon that instrument. The student is advised to read the intro- 

 ductory chapter before beginning the practical portion of the work. 



The author, from long experience in the teaching of histology, has learnt that 

 the reluctance shown by students in making drawings of their microscopic prepara- 

 tions renders it advisable to facilitate as much as possible this method of exact 

 representation. This he does by giving to each student a series of outline plates, 

 in which the main features of the chief microscopic sections are indicated. For two 

 sessions he has done this with his classes of practical histology in the University 

 of Aberdeen, and he finds that the students rapidly acquire the art of filling in the 

 necessary details. At the end of the course of histology, therefore, each student is 

 in possession of a complete set of microscopic preparations, which illustrates the 



