No. 3.] MISCELLANEOUS. 185^ 



collection of casts. Thousands of dollars were spent in buying 

 especially choice specimens of the obtainable forms solely for the 

 purpose of making casts from them, and the originals are still pre- 

 served in his museum at Rochester. Every educational institution 

 in the country may now possess perfect casts of the rarest fossils, 

 forming exact facsimiles of the unique originals in the British Mu- 

 seum, the Jardin des Plantes, and other foreign museums, besides 

 a representative collection of all that is needed to illustrate geolo- 

 gical history. 



From this important beginning, Professor Ward has gone on 

 enlarging the usefulness of his work by adding to his stock, skins 

 and skeletons of animals, fossils and minerals, and alchoholic 

 specimens, so that institutions may provide themselves with col- 

 lections accurately labelled and arranged, without sending abroad 

 for the purpose. 



With the capital invested in so large an enterprise, rapid sales 

 must be effected, and one not familiar with the scientific attain- 

 ments of Professor Ward, and the sole desire that animates him, 

 to spread far and wide the type collections so important for edu- 

 cational purposes, might confound his occupation with that of the 

 ordinary dealer in natural history objects, such as one may find 

 in any large city. While in the latter case, however, with some 

 laudable exceptions, the dealers offer simply the fortuitous gather- 

 ings of sailors, comprising curosities, shells, and detached portions 

 of animals, like turtles' shields, sharks' jaws, and the like, of no 

 intrinsic value, the work in which Prof Ward is engaged is one 

 of a solid scientific character. His outlays are immense, yet every- 

 thing he does is done solely in reference to advancing science,. 

 He has the endorsement of every naturalist in the country, and 

 already the leading museums in the country are indebted to him 

 for some of their choicest material. 



Every scientific man should visit Professor Ward's place at 

 Rochester, New York, and see the bee-hive of industry he hag 

 built up around him. We visited Rochester in February, solely 

 for the purpose of examining the new industry. Here one finds 

 several large buildings, besides sheds and yards devoted to re- 

 ceiving, preparing and shipping specimens. There are twelve 

 men constantly employed as taxidermists, osteologists, moulders 

 and carpenters. Two of the osteologists he has brought from 

 the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, where they had worked for a long 

 time under the direction of eminent anatomists. The skeletons- 



