Introduction. 
xi 11 
space at our disposal for the exhibition of specimens relating to the 
subject of Economic Zoology, we find it sufficient to distinguish in each 
group or smaller division the “ British ” and the “ Extra-British animals. 
An animal once established as an inhabitant of Britain we shall consider 
as British, whether it is of foreign importation or long established as an 
inhabitant of these islands. 
GROUP A. 
Animals Captured or Slaughtered by Man for Food, or for the 
use by him, in other ways, of their Skin, Bone, Fat, or 
other Products. 
This group includes those animals having the most primitive and 
direct relation to man, those which he hunts and captures or kills. 
Perhaps the relation of some (but not all) of those animals which 
infest or attack the body of uncivilised man may be regarded as equally 
primitive, that is to say, the relations are free from the complicating 
circumstances of the civilisation of great communities of mankind. 
It is not desirable in a general Museum of Natural History to bring 
together a special series of these animals of the chase or fishery. They 
are best seen and are fully represented in the general galleries of the 
Museum. Here they may be roughly enumerated. According to locality 
and circumstance, almost any animal may become the source of food or of 
economic products to this or that race of man. In the list given below 
those animals only are cited which are regularly and habitually pursued 
by man, either for the purposes of procuring them for food or as the 
source of economic products. 
We divide the group into two sub-groups. 
(a) Animals pursued for food. 
(b) Animals pursued for their economic products. 
Protozoa.. 
Porifera .. 
Ccelentera 
Echinoderma 
Platyhelmia 
Nemertina.. 
Nematoda .. 
Clisetopoda 
Survey of Sub-group (a) of Geoup A. 
ANIMALS PURSUED FOR FOOD. 
None. 
None. 
Sea anemones (cul de mulet) are to be seen in most 
French fish markets and are also eaten in Sicily, Trieste, 
and Istria ( Actinia viridis and others). 
Echinus (sea urchins), the ovaries of various species in 
all parts of the world, especially in the West Indies 
and Adriatic Coast. 
Holothurians, known as “ beche-de-mer ” or “trepang,” 
are dried and cooked by the Chinese, Neapolitans and 
others. 
Cestodcs (tapeworms) are eaten by the Chinese. 
None. 
None. 
Palolo worms {Eunice) are eaten in the Samoan Islands 
in large quantities. 
