PEEFACE 



HE completion of the present volume, the 

 first and only one ever published devoted 

 exclusively to the Slugs of the British Isles, 

 is a matter of considerable satisfaction, and 

 , I trust that the information presented here- 

 with on their variation, habits, structure, 

 geographical and geological distribution 

 will aid in the advancement and further 

 popularization of a study in which of late years so great an amount of 

 interest has been displayed; and consequently it seems a fitting and 

 appropriate occasion on which to include in the Introduction a brief 

 review of the history and progress of Limacology in this country, detailing 

 the rise of the present interest in the group, and the individuals and 

 causes leading to this gratifying result. 



The study of Limacology has, however, never been a general one, for 

 although many of the species are undeniably of great beauty, with bright 

 and vivid colouring, frequently variegated, or banded with darker mark- 

 ings of pleasing arrangement, yet the handling of these otherwise beautiful 

 animals, and the difficulty of their satisfactory preservation in collec- 

 tions, have always been very serious drawbacks to the popularization of 

 their stndy. 



