Studies in comparative odontology.

  • Underwood, Arthur S. (Arthur Swayne), 1854-1916.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Studies in comparative odontology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE The immediate object of this book is to render the study of Comparative Odontology easier, and, I am tempted to hope, more attractive to the student. The study of the larger classical handbooks can never be dispensed with by anyone who really wishes to understand the subject, and I trust that a new way of putting things, and a new way of looking at them, may lead to a better appreciation of those standard works. I have en- deavoured to intermix the unavoidable detail with broader considerations of great underlying principles, and have been at some pains to verify the facts from personal observation. The figures have been drawn for me by my wife direct from specimens at the various museums, where the kindness of the custodians has enabled her to have access to all that she needed in the way of specimens and invaluable hints. Some few of these drawings are from intentionally very diagrammatic drawings of my own, and the reader is requested to attribute any short- comings to my sketches and any excellencies to the artist. Much has been left out, and much has been very lightly touched upon ; in all cases my object has been to interest in the first place and instruct in the second, for it is my experience that once a student is interested in a subject its study is no longer a toil, but a delight, and the facts and details become as much part of his daily equipment as his hat and umbrella. The little New Zealand lizard Tuatera is not a very