1899] ICHTHYOSA UR US AT HOME 1 7 1 



Ichthyosaurus at Home. 



One of the shortest cuts to a realisation of Ichthyosaurus is a journey 

 to the Museum in Stuttgart. It may be that the Saurian's rehabilita- 

 tion is still caviare to the general, but there are many accessory attrac- 

 tions by the way. The Stuttgart Museum — the Naturalien-Cabinet 

 as they call it — is indeed a treasure-house for students of palaeon- 

 tology, whether they are interested in tertiary mammals or the teeth 

 of Microlestcs, crustaceans or Steinheim molluscs, Labyrinthodonts or 

 Saurians, and it is said that the thicket of mammoth tusks from 

 Cannstadt has proved so impressive that it is mentioned in Eaedecker, 

 which surely means an Ultima Tlmle of fame. 



The museum as a whole is painfully suggestive of what museolo- 

 gists call " the fat boy," except in this respect that it seems in no wise 

 somnolent. But it puzzles the inquisitive visitor to imagine where a 

 single additional specimen could possibly be stored. The most in- 

 geniously crowded cases of " Vermes," for instance, are positively 

 heartrending, and one feels that a few more exchanges would leave 

 only the labels visible on the ascending staircase of bottles. 



Among the striking features may be noted the extraordinarily rich 

 series of Pheasants and Birds of Paradise ; the fine representation of 

 the Wiirttemberg fauna, including that strange phenomenon — Eatten- 

 konig — of many rats entangled by their tails, and with a wealth of 

 duplicates, e.g. of Pelias verus, which must surely embarrass anyone but 

 a student of variations ; a skilfully displayed set of insects injurious to 

 herbs and trees ; besides various fascinating rarities like the Great 

 Auk. 



Yet the feature of the collection is doubtless the series of Saurians 

 (in the wide sense) on which Dr. Fraas — one of the custodians of the 

 museum — has worked with so much success. It was among these 

 that we recently spent two happy forenoons, and it was the wealth of 

 species and individuals of Ichthyosaurus — from one measuring twelve 

 metres in length to a little foetus within its mother — which suggested 

 the title of our note, written not for the learned palaeontologist at 

 home, but for the amateur naturalist abroad, in the hope that among 

 the thousands of English visitors who pass annually through the 

 charms of Stuttgart, this may possibly arrest some to enjoy the 

 glimpse into an ancient world which the palaeontological museum 

 affords. There are of course many richer collections, but it will be 

 hard to find one equally rich of which it can be said that all the 

 treasures are local. Perhaps even the Stuttgarters themselves are but 

 dimly aware that the Naturalien-Cabinet is a much more marvellous 

 treasure-house than even the wonderful Moorish Palace of which they 

 are justly proud. Similarly, there are but few elect Dundonians who 

 have any notion of the wealth of Prof. D'Arcy Thompson's collection 



