A few lines will suffice to explain why we have compiled the present volume, to what wants it responds, and what its sphere of usefulness may possibly embrace.

In our teaching of plastic anatomy, especially at the École des Beaux-Arts—where, for the past nine years, we have had the very great honour of supplementing the teaching of our distinguished master, Mathias Duval, after having been prosector for his course of lectures since 1881—it is our practice to give, as a complement to the ...

The book is divided into two sections the first are considered the sources of the ideas except those of organic evolution that dominate biology and the steps by which they have been molded into a unified science. The trine of Organic Evolution on account of its importance is reserved for special consideration in the second section.

This is of course merely a division of convenience since after its acceptance the doctrine of evolution has entered into all phases of biological progress.

The po...