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PREFACE. 



This Primer is an attempt to explain in the most 

 simple manner possible some of the most important 

 and most general facts of Physiology, and may be 

 looked upon as an introduction to the Elementary 

 Lessons of Professor Huxley. 



In my descriptions and explanations I have sup- 

 posed the reader to be willing to handle and examine 

 such things as a dead rabbit and a sheep's hearty 

 and written accordingly. I have done this purposely, 

 from an increasing conviction that actual observation 

 of structures is as necessary for the sound learning 

 of even elementary physiology, as are actual experi- 

 ments for chemistry. At the same time I have 

 tried to make my text intelligible to those who think 

 reading verbal descriptions less tiresome than observ- 

 ing things for themselves. 



It seemed more desirable in so elementary a work 

 to insist, even with repetition, on some few funda- 

 mental truths, than to attempt to skim over the whole 

 wide field of Physiology. I have therefore omitted 

 all that relates to the Senses and to the functions of 

 the Nervous System, merely just referring to them in 

 the concluding article. These the reader must study 



in the " Elementary Lessons." 



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M. Foster, 



