ELEMENTS OF ZOOLOGY; EMBRACING A VIEW OF LIFE AS MANIFESTED IN THE VARIOUS GRADATIONS OF ORGANIZED BEINGS. BY WILLIAM RHIND, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCRGEONS, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL AND EDINBURGH : FRASER & CRAWFORD; JOIN ANDERSON, JUNIOR; AND MACLACHLAN & STEWART. PREFACE. THE object of this little work is to afford to students a concise but connected and systematic view of the vital functions, and the varieties of animal structure as exemplified in the graduated scale of existence. As it is intended to serve as a text-book for more extended lectures, a general view of the classification of the animal kingdom is also given. In this synopsis, the arrangement of Cuvier is taken as the basis, with a few exceptions, which are pointed out in the table at the end. The illustrative woodcuts are confined chiefly to the elucidation of organic structure; an engraved atlas of the leading orders and genera of animals is proposed to be afterwards published as a suitable accompaniment. In using this work as a class book for junior pupils, certain portions may be at first selected; as the sections on the senses and instinct, or a class of animals, as the mammalia-birds- insects; while, to the advanced student, a course of more extended reading, as pointed out in the authors subjoined, may be followed, along with the perusal of the entire treatise. The utility of early training, in the various departments of natural science, is daily becoming more obvious to the public generally; and there is no doubt but that a period will soon arrive when such studies will be recognized as regular branches of education in our schools and academies in this country, as they have long been with the greatest success in similar establishments on the Continent. EDINBURGH, 21, FORTH STREET, |