VI PIIEFACE. 



careful study of one slide, the dissection of one flower, 

 than by many hours of mere reading and looking at 

 pictures. 



That these works are not read attentively or well 

 understood by many young persons, who now purchase 

 Microscopes and collect objects, seems probable from 

 the remarks which are made and the questions that are 

 asked when looking at preparations from the Vegetable 

 and the Animal Kingdom. We not unfrequently hear 

 the section of an Echinus spine pronounced "very 

 pretty, exactly like a crochet pattern" the Echinus 

 itself being an unknown thing. Spicules of Holothuria 

 or Gorgonia are brilliant little clubs and crosses ; but 

 what a Holothuria is they cannot imagine. The foot of 

 a Dytiscus, with its cluster of suckers, is like the eye of 

 a peacock's feather ; cells of spiral fibre nothing more 

 than coils of variegated wire ; and the head of Rhingia, 

 with its wonderful eyes, is looked at as a beautiful piece 

 of network. It is the design of this Catalogue to give 

 simply that elementary knowledge of Vegetable and 

 Animal Physiology, which will enable the young student 

 to understand the Slides in the Object-box, and excite 

 the desire to learn more from better books. 



It is also hoped that many will be led to purchase 

 the preparations of Whole -mounted Insects, and by the 

 careful study of them take the first steps into the wide 

 and pleasant field of Natural History. As the ear is 

 educated by the study of music, so the eye is educated 

 by a habit of observation. An artist's eye catches the 

 faintest tint of colour, observes the minutest curve in 

 an outline; a physician's eye scans quickly and reads 

 deeply the confused or obscure diagnosis of disease, 

 unperceived by others, and every line in the patient's 



