TO THE READER. 
fomc of the few defigns already made, throwing away others which we had 
before approved of, and finifhed the reft: with more accuracy and lefs la¬ 
bour, doing in this way in a few minutes more than could be done 
without in many hours, I might fay in many days: And however fuffi- 
cient artifts may think themfelves to execute perfectly the more difficult 
parts of drawing without luch helps, it is well known that when they 
have occafion to draw ftreight lines or circles, they do not difdain to ufe a 
ruler or compafs. But my engravers, Mr. Vandergucht and Mr. Shinevoet 
not lefs skilled in drawing than in their own proper art, knew too well 
the difficulties of reprefenting irregular lines, perfpedtive, and proportion, 
to defpife fuch affiftance, always declaring that it was impoffible to do 
thefe things fo well without. 
Two of the fmaller plates, the head of the man-tyger, and the fceleton 
of the tortoife, and all the large plates except viii. xi. xxi. and xxxi. were 
done by Mr. Gerard Vandergucht, and how great an artift he is, the open 
free ftilc in which thefe plates are etched and engraved, and the inimita¬ 
ble manner of exprefling the different textures of the parts fufficiently 
fhew. 
The reft were performed by Mr. Shinevoet who left Holland, his native 
country, on account of misfortunes. He had done in England before thefe 
fome excellent works, particularly infide views of cathedral churches, 
which he was forced to fuffer another man to let his name to, and e’er he 
had finifhed my work he died. The laft thing he attempted was the fcele¬ 
ton of a herfe, which being done in the winter in his chamber without 
the camera, it was fo unequal to the reft that I could not ufe it; his manner 
of etching, though wonderfully neat and expreflive, and well fuited to 
fucli things as he was moftly employed in, is neverthelefs much inferior 
in ftile to that of Mr. Vandergucht. 
The actions of all the fceletons both human and comparative, as well 
as the attitudes of every bone, were my own choice: and where particular 
parts needed to be more diftindfly exprefled on account of the anatomy, 
there I always diredted; fometimes in the drawings with the pencil, and 
often with the needle upon the copper plate, and where the anatomift 
does not take this care, he will fcarce have his work well performed. The 
exprefling the fmoothnefs of the ends of the bones by engraving only with 
Angle lines, while the other parts were all etched, was alfo my contriving; 
and what advantage this has been to the work will be feen by compa¬ 
ring the fmooth part of the acetabulum of the os innominatum in the be¬ 
ginning of the book, with the heads and fockets of other bones. 
