396 NOTES AND COMMENTS [decembek 



The Biological Corner of a Natural History 



Museum. 



Professor L. Cuenot discusses in La Fcuille des Jeunes Naturalistes 

 (xxix. 1899, pp. 195-197) the possibility and utility of collections to 

 illustrate facts and problems of general biology. He instances the 

 cases in the entrance hall in the British Museum (Natural History), 

 and some illustrations which he saw in the University Museum in 

 Cambridge, but he protests, like Herrera, that what has hitherto been 

 the exception should in the future prove the rule. 



He takes the chapters in L Annie Biologique, and suggests that, 

 although one must not expect too much in museum illustration of 

 these, one may reasonably look for more than is at present offered. 

 At Nancy he has himself tried to realise some of his ideals. Regenera- 

 tion, parasitic castration and peculiarities of sex-inhibition, homochromy 

 and other protective adaptations, variation, sexual dimorphism, 

 convergence, and the like may be vividly illustrated without great 

 difficulty. Even heredity he would illustrate by generations of mice, 

 and the recapitulation-doctrine by placing young Comatulas in their 

 stalked stage beside Pentacrinus. There is obviously no difficulty 

 except that of time and money, which applies to other kinds of exhibits, 

 and the pains of thought which inhibit many of these valuable sugges- 

 tions. It is only fair to note, however, that the number of these 

 biological exhibits is rapidly increasing both at home and abroad. 



Linne's Type Specimens of Fishes. 



One of the many excellent outcomes of Dr. Gunther's presidency of 

 the Linnean Society will be seen in his Anniversary Address for May 

 last, just issued. In this address he deals with the fish preserved in 

 Linne's own collection, which has been in the possession of the Society 

 for about a century. How little they have been valued by the 

 Society may best be gathered from the fact that Dr. Gunther records, 

 "in order to render them more secure in the future, your Council has 

 ordered them to be transferred [from loose sheets of paper] to dust- 

 proof glass-topped boxes." One only hopes that Dr. Gunther will see 

 that every precious Linnean specimen is placed in a glass-topped box 

 before he leaves the presidential chair ; it is difficult to understand 

 why this was not done years ago. 



The fishes owned by Linne consist of 168 skins, and came from 

 three sources, Scandinavia, Germany (chiefly freshwater), and South 

 Carolina. They are all preserved like plants in a herbarium, and 

 on the sheets of paper are usually notes in Linne's handwriting, while 

 those from South Carolina usually have a band of paper round the tail, 



