Excerpt from Curiosities of Natural HistoryThe Preface is generally the last portion of a book which is written, and on this account it ought to be read first. I would beg of those into whose hands this book should come, to reverse the usual order of things, and to read the Preface before they dip into the contents. They will then know why it was written.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.