I have not named my authorities or given references to any passages in their books. My critics, friendly or unfriendly, may complain of this omission. But I hope they will not. I hope they will see that I have gathered my materials together for a clearly shown purpose with which particular references and frequent defined quotations would have interfered. I wanted to build a wayside cottage for travellers who are in haste and will soon pass on, not a museum for the leisurely student. I hope, then, that my critics will ...
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I have not named my authorities or given references to any passages in their books. My critics, friendly or unfriendly, may complain of this omission. But I hope they will not. I hope they will see that I have gathered my materials together for a clearly shown purpose with which particular references and frequent defined quotations would have interfered. I wanted to build a wayside cottage for travellers who are in haste and will soon pass on, not a museum for the leisurely student. I hope, then, that my critics will criticize the cottage to their hearts' content-I shall do my best to learn from them, -but I beg them not to treat it as a museum whose curator has either not had the sense or not taken the trouble to ticket its contents. In place of references I have given in an appendix two short lists of easily accessible books which will give technical support to the substance of this little work. I have learnt much from them and taken-all but quoted-much. I make no apology for including, among books from which I have learnt, two of my own. Nothing teaches as solidly as trying to teach. And the record of a learner sometimes helps learners, when the oracles of the learned fail. But I must acknowledge here my own great indebtedness to two of those learned, my old instructors, Sir Edward Sch�fer and Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, whose admirable lessons in the biological sciences of which they are distinguished professors laid a scientific foundation in me for all my subsequent study.
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