JOURNAL 95 



there are none. The quadruped skeletons of the 

 Edinbiui;li College of Surgeons are on the whole well 

 put up, but hardly one of them is perfect. The lioness 

 is good — so is the elephant — and so are several 

 others. Altogether they are a hundred times better 

 than those of the Glasgow College, the Andersonian 

 Institution, the Liverpool Institution, and the Dublin 

 College of Surgeons. So far good. But if the Edin- 

 burgh collection were mine, and I had hands enough, 

 and money enough to set them agoing, I could make 

 it worthy of the nineteenth century. One of the 

 members told me that the plachig of bottles on a shelf 

 is nothing. Truly, old one ! any person Avith but one 

 eye might discover that, although it is not everything, 

 it is yet something which may be desperately mis- 

 managed. 



Museums with too many managers must be mis- 

 managed. ^Vho ever heard of any great exploit 

 emanating from ten heads, although ten thousand 

 hands may have executed it. Did a journal with /rco 

 editors ever prosper ? Could two Audubons have drawn 

 the " Birds of America." If the ordination of the 

 Museum should go contrary to my ideas, let it go to — 

 the condition in which it was when I received it. I 

 never seriously desired the appointment, never called 

 on a member for his vote, did not even inquire when 

 the election was to be, and do not now know who 

 voted for or against me. Having undertaken the 

 task, however, I am now interested in it ; but, my 

 boys, thwart a little, and you shall see that I can 



