31 6 PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 



mals of the country they go through, and come under the 

 denomination of practical naturalists, find that the 

 preservation of specimens is absolutely necessary, and 

 for the same reasons. It is obvious, however, that the 

 principle upon which, in these cases, they should pro- 

 ceed, is very different from that already suggested for 

 the adoption of the scientific naturalist. There is no 

 occasion to preserve objects to which they can attach no 

 anecdote or history, unless they collect for the ulterior 

 purposes of general science. In either case, however, 

 every naturalist and traveller would do well to make 

 himself acquainted with the ordinary process of pre- 

 serving skins, and of collecting and preserving insects 

 and shells. As for the soft mollusca, very little inform- 

 ation can he obtained from them, after they have been 

 contracted by being put into spirits. 



(381.) Technical words will prove, at first, a great hin- 

 derance to the student ; but they are inevitable. They 

 constitute, in fact, the language of zoology, since they 

 are employed to express ideas which cannot be conveyed 

 by words in ordinary use. To lessen this difficulty, we 

 shall arrange all the words of this description, as they 

 occur, at the end of each succeeding volume, where they 

 may be immediately referred to. Such as are of fre- 

 quent occurrence had better be copied out in a memo- 

 randum book for more perfect recollection ; a plan 

 which would tend more to fix them upon the memory 

 than any other we could recommend. 



(382.) The assistance of books is as important as the 

 assistance derived from specimens : by the latter we 

 study nature, while by the former we learn the opi- 

 nions of her expounders, and the progress they have 

 made in recording her manifold works. Let us re- 

 member that the latter are Divine, while the former 

 partake more or less of that imperfection which belongs 

 to every thing human. 



