Anatomy of Comparative Vertebrates

In this second enlarged and expanded edition the author has attempted not only to give the laboratory directions for the dissection of the various systems, but also presented in connection with each system a very brief, generalized, and simplified account of the present revision is based wholly on the study of original literature and advanced treatises. In place of the impression of a static subject wherein everything has been worked out, gained from the usual textbooks, it aims to give the student a picture of a vast field full of controversial issues and unsolved problems, depending for their solution on future painstaking embryological and anatomical researches. This book tries to teach comparative vertebrate anatomy by means of real specimens, and it is to be hoped that ample material will be available during the laboratory study. This work is indispensable to the student of comparative vertebrate anatomy and must serve as a guide in beginning the study of any system. It is a bottomless source of information on any facts one might want to know, although less satisfactory, perhaps, in giving connected account of the evolution of the system.