NOTICE TO THE FIEST EDITION. IX 



matters -of- fact in science as well as in other things, I have 

 done my best to avoid all repetitions, all French idioms, all 

 lengthened treatment of physiological and metaphysical 

 hypotheses; but in doing so I have scrupulously avoided 

 omitting any fact or idea or opinion of the author. The 

 anatomical details of the work I have endeavoured to give in 

 as brief, concise, and simple a manner as befits such matters. 

 Anatomy is a science of facts and of demonstrations ; even 

 when the objects are present, as in lectures (and this was the 

 original form of M. Edwards's work), it is a mistake to over- 

 load their description with terms, whether technical or popular : 

 my vast experience as a teacher of Anatomy early taught me 

 this. In French the error is less obvious than in English, a 

 language which does not readily accommodate itself to those 

 combinations of unclassical terms which all science unfor- 

 tunately requires ; which sound harshly to the ears of the 

 classical scholar, and have greatly retarded, no doubt, the 

 accomplishment of that object which is the aim of this work, 

 namely, the introduction, in England, of Zoology as a branch 

 of primary education. 



R. K. 



