10 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Marcll 



visit from any one interested in the best mode of exhibiting objects 

 in a museum. It is of great professional value ; and indepen- 

 dently of this, it possesses a melancholy interest in its profuse ex- 

 hibitions of the effects of shot, shell and other implements of 

 destruction, on the poor human frame. Almost every conceiv- 

 able form of injury received in war is here exhibited by prepara- 

 tions, every one of which tells not only the history of a surgical 

 case, but a tale of suffering and death. A strange commentary it 

 is on the humanity of a christian and civilized age to see these 

 beautifully fashioned and fitted human bones, splintered by the 

 rude violence of deadly missiles, and now mounted with all the 

 dainty skill of the anatomical preparator. In flat cases, where 

 they are much better seen than as ordinarily arranged in wall 

 cases are a few interesting American skulls — some of supposed 

 mound-builders of the West, others of rude Indian tribes, and a 

 few Mexican and Peruvian. One cannot fail to be struck, even on 

 a cursory inspection of these skulls, as well of as the larger series in 

 the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia and in the Smithsonian, 

 with such general views as the following; — 1st. That there is 

 one prevalent and somewhat long-headed form of skull very gen- 

 erally distributed in America ; 2nd. That there are occasional 

 and peculiar short-headed forms; 3rd. That some of the latter, 

 as well as some of the long and narrow forms, are the results of arti- 

 ficial compression ; 4th. That the skulls of the more civilized races 

 are of a finer and more delicate type ; 5th. That there is a strong 

 resemblance between the ordinary American forms and those of 

 the skulls of ancient and rude European and African tribes. 

 These are general truths which rise out of the mass of details 

 noticed by craniologists, and which are eminently suggestive as 

 to the relationships and affiliations of men. 



In leaving the museum I paused to look at two little glass 

 cases containing two modern mummies of Indian children, in ex- 

 cellent preservation. One is a Flathead child, its skull com- 

 pressed in the strange fashion of that tribe — its feet gathered up 

 to its chest, its shrunken frame carefully wrapped in cloth, and 

 on its breast bearing a necklace of beautiful Dentalium shells, the 

 most precious treasure of the west coast, mixed with a few glass 

 beads, perhaps almost as precious. The other is a Dakotah 

 child, in full dress, with neatly made coat and leggins, and 

 prettily worked mocassins, and a broad collar of white and blue 

 beads and brass buttons neatly strung on leather. These, though 



