VI PREFACE. 



but the more complicated structures examined, and 

 for this provision has been made in the book. It is 

 not to be expected that epitomized descriptions of 

 structures as elaborate as are many of those with 

 which we have to deal in Human Histology, will be 

 in all cases perfectly clear and intelligible without 

 the aid of plates ; but the specimens which the stu- 

 dent prepares, and the sketches from them which 

 he makes, will make good, it is hoped, the lack of 

 illustration in the text. Indeed, the more critical 

 examination which accurate sketching requires, as 

 well as the facility which this exercise cultivates, 

 will enlarge the achievements of such a course of 

 study beyond the acquirement of a knowledge of 

 this theme alone, so as to embrace a valuable train- 

 ing of the eye and hand. 



This book is not designed to take the place of 

 more elaborate treatises on this subject ; nor is it 

 written with the design of fostering the deplorably 

 widespread tendency among medical students to 

 be content with the barest smattering of those 

 branches which are not in the most evident manner 

 " practical." On the contrary, where time permits, 

 collateral reading and additional practical work are 

 most urgently recommended. But the necessity for 

 improvement in medicaleducation, which is expres- 

 sing itself in the medical colleges of this country, 

 especially in the establishment of laboratories and 

 practical courses of instruction, is, unfortunately, 



