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Show PREFACE. TnE present work contains, snbstantia11y, the L0rtnrrs wl1irh I delivered, in the spring of 1863, at the I~oyal Collrge of' Surgeons of England, in discharge of my duty as Ilnnterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology to the College. I purpose, should I continue to hold that honourable office, to publish the substance of subsequent courses in a sim·ilar manner; and by that process to brjng out, eventually, a comprehensive, though condensed, systematic work on Cmnparative Anatomy. In intention, therefore, the volnme now before the reader is the first of a series, to be followed. in due order by a second, "On 1\Ian and the other Primates;" a third, on the remaining Mammalia, and so on. Whether this intention will ever be fully carried out depends on so many contingencies, however, that I have thought it the better eourse to let each volume rmnain, in form, independent of the rest. I have much pleasure in expressing my obligations to the President and Council of the Royal College of Surgeon for the unrestricted access which I have enjoyed to the abundant anatomical treasures contained in their Museum and Hs storerooms, to \vhich my Lectures are indebted for many of their most instructive illu. trations. b 2 |