PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



The present edition of the "Anatomy of the Rabbit" appears 

 in the same form as previously adopted for the second, but with 

 some minor revisions and modifications. The necessity of re- 

 printing the text after a comparatively brief interval of use, and 

 the thorough revision in passing from the first to the second editions 

 are together accountable for the fact that the number of corrections 

 . is not greater. Realizing that the ultimate value of a manual of 

 dissection depends upon the combined experience of as. great a 

 variety as possible of instructors ajid students using it, the author 

 has endeavoured at all stages of revision to incorporate such new 

 ideas as have been received, and is appreciative of the interest 

 taken in the matter by an increasing number of individuals. 



The chief features of the text may be summarized as follows: 

 The practical convenience of the rabbit is recognized as material 

 for elementary anatomical study in the same way as in other 

 fields of biological study and investigation. Though the principal 

 design of the boolc is to direct the studenj; in an orde'rly study of the 

 structure of a mammal, points of physiological interest have been 

 included so far as seemed advisable within the limits of a small 

 manual of anatomical outlook. The setting of gross anatomy, in 

 respect of microscopic anatomy, embryology, and the foundations of 

 evolutionary development in- general, has been carefully con- 

 sidered, While the points to which reference is made in the dis- 

 section are given a restricted description, there is no suggestion to 

 the student of inadequate and superficial treatment, such as is 

 common and perhaps necessary in manuals where the study of a 

 number of types is presupposed as part of the course of instruction. 



The book has been planned in part to serve the purpose of 

 those zoological students who seek to obtain knowledge of a 

 grade of organization sufficiently near that of the human body 

 as a foundation for comparative studies, but more especially for 

 premedical and medical students who by making a preliminary 

 practical study of a convenient and easily obtained mammal 

 may obtain thereby a knowledge of the foundations of human 



