PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The Owens College Course of Elementary Biology, which 

 forms part of the scheme of study prescribed by the Victoria 

 University, is of a rather more extended and comprehensive 

 nature than the courses held elsewhere under the same name ; 

 and experience has shown me that there is want of a book 

 that will guide and direct the student through the practical 

 part of his work, the whole ground of which is covered by no 

 one of the existing manuals. It is to meet this want that the 

 present little work has been prepared. 



This first instalment of the work consists of an Introduction, 

 containing practical instruction in the methods employed in 

 biological investigation ; followed by the application of these 

 methods to the examination, both anatomical and histological, 

 of an actual animal. For this purpose the frog has been 

 selected as being easy to obtain, convenient to dissect, and a 

 fairly typical example of the great group of Vertebrate animals. 

 Where, from its small size or for other reason, the frog has 

 proved unsuitable, other animals have been substituted for it. 



For convenience of reference, and in order to definitely 

 stamp the practical character of the work, directions for dis- 

 section, etc., have throughout been printed in italics. 



It is not expected that the student should do the whole of 



