HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



109 



A CHAPTEE ON BONES. 



By EDWARD EENTONE ELWIN, Caius College. 



is it that the 

 students of Osteo- 

 logy are so few in 

 number ? It is a 

 branch of science 

 which offers a wide 

 field for original re. 

 search, and one in 

 which at every step 

 one's interest must get more 

 and more engrossed. It is 

 a branch of science in which 

 a sufficient portion of its 

 elements may be rapidly 

 learned, in order to set the 

 studeut fairly on his road. 

 The barriers which surround 

 it are few: that is to say, 

 the technical barriers are few. 

 Many pecple who want to 

 occupy themselves with scien- 

 tific study are deterred, be- 

 cause of the feeling that there are so many labo- 

 rious preliminaries to be gone through before 

 they can begin to take any real pleasure in the 

 pursuit. Now, in Osteology it is true that a 

 wide and really almost unexplored field lies open 

 before one, but the equipments necessary to fit 

 one for one's journey are easily attained. The 

 first step, is to get thoroughly accpiaiuted with 

 some one typical specimen, as a standard of compa- 

 rison for all future work. It matters little what spe- 

 cies is taken ; whatever one comes most convenient. 

 Some familiar mammal of fair size is the best. 

 The dog is as good as any, and easy to obtain. 

 There never ought to be any real difficulty in getting 

 a suitable specimen. If expense is no object, the 

 simplest way is to get a preparation, set up so as i 

 readily to take to pieces, at one of the bone- | 

 preserver's shops in London. One like this costs I 

 only a moderate sum, and is, of course, the least I 

 No. 128. 



trouble, although the manner in which professionals 

 prepare their bones is not altogether satisfactory. 

 But one may regard this something in the light of 

 a luxury ; and it is not hard to prepare one's own 

 specimens, provided one does not mind a little 

 manipulation with unsavoury objects. I have given 

 hints as to the best method by which this may 

 be done in previous pages of Science-Gossip.* 

 Of course, as oue's work gets on, one needs further 

 specimens, but I do not think that any one who 

 keeps his eyes open need be at a loss in this matter. 

 I have picked up several admirable bones ready 

 cleaned by the wind and weather, and many slightly- 

 damaged ones may be got at naturalists' shops for 

 small sums, which are almost as good as the perfect 

 ones for an observer's purposes. Even single and 

 isolated bones are often very instructive. 



But the first main point is that of getting the forms, 

 peculiarities, names, and positions of the bones of 

 one skeleton fully impressed on the student's mind. 

 As to the books which are to help him to do this, it 

 is very hard to know what to recommend. As far 

 as I know, there is no really luminous book on 

 osteology iu existence. So far as learning the 

 names and peculiarities of the bones, nothing could 

 be better or more to the purpose than Elower's 

 "Osteology of the Mammalia"; but this treats only 

 of one class, and does not get beyond technical 

 description. The first and second volumes of 

 Owen's " Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates," 

 fill the gap the best of any, and yet these are by no 

 means what we really want. There is a good deal 

 about bones iu Huxley's " Anatomy of Vertebrated 

 Animals," but in such a fragmentary and scattered 

 form as to be of little use. The fact is, the field is 

 yet open for an Osteological Manual. Much has 

 been written on the subject. Pages of precise and 

 accurate description, beautiful and artistic sheets of 

 plates of bones without number can be seen in any 

 scientific library. But this is only half the matter. 



* Science-Gossip for 18/2, p. 39 > for 1S/4, p. 226. 



