KnlNOCEROTID^. 297 



very limited funds. The Trustees at first objected to have any skulls 

 or other bones ; but it was proved to them that mammalia and other 

 vertebrates could not be stuthed without a collection of skuUs. The 

 fact was, one of the Trustees, Sir R. Inglis, was also a Trustee of the 

 Hunterian CoDection (certainly offices that are not incompatible with 

 each other ; for my uncle, Dr. E. W. Gray, one of my predecessors 

 in my present office, was, on the purchase of the Hunterian Col- 

 lection, named one of the Trustees) ; and he stated to me that he 

 was urged to prevent the collection of ostcological specimens in the 

 Uritish Museum, as being a rival and injurious to the collection at 

 the College of Surgeons. The difficulty was to a groat extent re- 

 moved when Mr. Eryau Hodgson offered the Museum his very large 

 collection of skins and skeletons from the Himalayas, which were to 

 be accepted together or declined together. Since that time the col- 

 lection has rapidly increased, and, though it was much depreciated 

 by Professor Owen in his evidence before the Eoyal Commissioners 

 on the affairs of the British Museum, was then, and I behove is now, 

 the best-determined and largest ostcological collection in Europe. 

 As to the rivalry, if any exists, it is to the benefit of both collec- 

 tions, for it is conducive to the activity of the Curator of each ; but 

 I have always felt, and the present Curator of the Museum of the 

 College of Surgeons believes, that they are able greatly to assist each 

 other. I only know that I take almost as much interest in the col- 

 lection of the College as in that under my own care. 



In the British Museum there is a skull belonging to the Indian 

 one-horned type ; it is the skull of a yoi;ng animal with premolars 

 of the milk series and the first permanent grinder appearing. It is 

 considerably larger than the skuEs of the Indian species of the same 

 age, and therefore inchcates a species fully as large as that animal. 

 The skull is so cHff"erent from that species in its compressed form 

 and proportions that there can be no doubt that it belongs to a veiy 

 distinct species, which has not before been observed. There are also 

 two skulls from Borneo, which belong to a distinct and hitherto 

 undescribed species. 



The Museum of the College of Surgeons contains two skeletons 

 and thirteen skulls of the Asiatic and three skulls of the African 

 Rhinocerotes. One of these skulls is very interesting ; it belongs to 

 the one-horned Inchan group, and is much like that of li. miicorms 

 in general characters. It is an adult skidl, with aU the permanent 

 teeth ; and it is so much smaller than the skull of the adult or even 

 a half-grown animal of that species, that it inchcates an animal not 

 more than half, or perhaps one-third, of the size of the common 

 Indian Rhinoceros. 



There are generally one or more skulls of the animals of the genus 

 to be seen in tlie larger local museums, as, for example, at Man- 

 chester, Leeds, and York. If these skulls could be collected together 

 and compared, they woidd form a most interesting collection for 

 study ; iinfortunately they are generally 'without any certain history 

 as to habitat &c. 



Cuvier, in his essay above cpiotcd, has given an excellent resume 



