The opening of Preface
My introductory treatise on the Entozoa having long been out of print, it occurred to me that instead of attempting another edition it would be better to write an entirely new work, employing only such fragmentary portions of the old treatise as would harmonise with the far wider design I have now in view. Whilst, therefore, I have freely utilised a selection of the illustrations given in the elementary volume, comparatively few of its pages have been incorporated in the present work.
Dealing with parasites and parasitism after a manner not hitherto attempted I have purposely omitted minute anatomical descriptions, and, with rare exceptions, I have avoided the introduction of clinical details. While bringing to a focus the records of, and principal references to, a widely scattered, intricate, and voluminous literature, it has been my chief endeavour to supply abundance of original matter of a kind that cannot be found in the columns of any existing treatise. Whether I have succeeded or not the experienced helminthologist alone can judge. He, at all events, will perceive that the summary, though compressed within the space of a moderate-sized octavo, can only have resulted from sustained effort.