fl he Royal College of Surgeons, as a body, do not hold themselves responsible
the matter or style of this Catalogue. It has been executed altogether by
Curator of the Museum, in compliance with the wishes of the College.
INTRODUCTION.
In furtherance of a recent regulation of the Royal College
of Surgeons in Ireland, by which the museum and library
have been opened to students in medicine, instructions have
been issued, “ that the catalogue of the preparations in the
museum be forthwith printed,” to render the collection the
more completely available for instruction.
The arrangement of the anatomical department being already
perfected, whilst that of the preparations in pathology yet
remains unfinished, owing to the want of sufficient accommodation
for the numerous specimens lately added, a necessity has
arisen of dividing the catalogue into two volumes—the first,
the present one, to contain a description of the preparations
illustrating the structure of animal bodies in their normal
state—the second, to embrace a description of the same
structures when altered by disease, and to be printed as
soon as the contemplated extension of the museum shall have
been so far perfected as to allow of the completion of the
arrangement.
Before entering into details, it will be proper to give some
explanation of the kind of classification adopted, and of the
mode by which reference may be made from the preparations
on the shelves to the catalogue, or vice versa, from the catalogue
to the exact spot in the museum at which the prepa