This work, prepared by order of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, is intended to serve, in the first instance, as a descriptive guide to the Collection of Animal Products at the Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum; and, secondly, as a practical treatise on Economic Zoology for the use of the Public generally.
While there are very many treatises on Natural History, scientifically arranged, there are few works in which the uses of Animals to Man, and the important Commercial Products they furnish, have received prominent attention. The author has long had this extensive subject before him in cataloguing, labelling, and describing the large and increasing Collection of Animal Products in the Bethnal Green Museum, and believes that a detailed description of the various useful substances furnished by the Animal Kingdom may be rendered both instructive and interesting.
