97 



city. He knew that the members, and all friendsof science 

 would be gratified to learn that it had been purchased by a 

 scientific gentleman, with a view of giving it a permanent 

 place among us. By the hberality of the proprietor, it would 

 be accessible to naturalists for scientific purposes, and would 

 always constitute an object of great scientific interest. This 

 munificent purchase enabled us to claim for Boston the 

 honor of possessing the two most perfect and the only au- 

 thentic integral skeletons of the Mastodon. The one, a 

 female, the subject of Dr. J. B. S. Jackson's notice, on pp. 

 60 — 62 of this volume, soon to be placed in the halls of 

 Harvard College, and the other, a male, now in preparation 

 for its owner. Dr. ShurtlefT announced the proprietor to be 

 Dr. John C. Warren. 



Dr. S. said that it was not his intention to give a detailed 

 description of the skeleton, as that would be done in a short time 

 by a distinguished anatomist. He would mention, however, that 

 its height is eleven feet, its length, in a straight line from the 

 most anterior part of the cranium to the most posterior part of the 

 pelvis, is fourteen feet four inches, and the extreme width of the 

 pelvis six feet two inches. The bones are in a remarkable state 

 of preservation, and have very nearly the appearance of recent 

 specimens. With the exception of a few phalangeal and caudal 

 bones, and the posterior portion of the sternum, the skeleton is 

 entire.^ 



Dr. ShurtlefT being himself engaged in articulating and mount- 

 ing the skeleton, thought it might be interesting to mention the 

 manner of doing it. The missing bones are replaced by imita- 

 tions. In restoring the absent phalangeal bones, the correspond- 

 ent ones of the opposite side, which fortunately were perfect, 

 offered the means of doing so correctly, by using reversed models 

 of them. The deficient portion of the sternum is copied from 

 that of the Asiatic elephant belonging to the Society. The 

 caudal vertebra3 are supplied, in part by models from another 



1 A description of this skeleton is given in the American Quarterly Journal of 

 Agriculture and Science, vol. ii. p. 203. The number of the dorsal vertebrae is 

 there erroneously stated lo be nineteen. The actual number is twenty. 



