Gould.] f4: 



Dr. A. A. Gould read from an English paper, that portion of 

 the address of Dr. Gray before the Zoological section of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science at its re- 

 cent meeting in Bath, which treated of public museums and 

 their arrangement; and a discussion of this subject followed, 

 in which Dr. White and Messrs. A. Agassiz and Scudder par- 

 ticipated. 



Mr. George Sceva remarked in relation to the skeletons 

 which the- Society had acquired within the past few years, 

 and which had lately been mounted by him, that particular 

 pains had been taken in articulating the bones, to insure their 

 greatest usefulness, while at the same time all unnecessary 

 expense had been avoided, such as using costly j^latforms 

 with brass standards for mounting the specimens. Great care 

 had been taken in drilling the holes for the wires, to make 

 them small and few in number, retaining the bones in place, 

 and the ends of the wires in many parts of the skeleton 

 instead of being turned over several times forming a large 

 curl, had been fastened by simply turning the end of the 

 wire back upon itself, which he believed to be stronger and 

 of considerable advantage in affording a better view of the 

 small bones of the extremities. He had also endeavored to 

 mount the skeletons so that a part, or the whole, might be 

 easily disarticulated, and the bones studied separately. 



In relation to having a number of specimens representing 

 several species of the same genus mounted and placed to- 

 gether on exhibition, Mr. Sceva thought that where space 

 could be afforded, in many studies requiring special investiga- 

 tions in Osteology, the examinations and comparison of bones 

 could be made with greater facihty by having them mounted 

 as mentioned above, than by storing them in drawers or 

 boxes. 



In illustration of the convenience of the former arrange- 

 ment he mentioned that in one of the large cases in the So- 

 ciety's Museum, containing seven of the larger species of the 

 genus Felis, the student would find, on examining the tarsal 

 bones, that the first metatarsal, which is rudimentary in the 

 cats, was coalesced with the internal cuneiform on both feet of 

 one of the specimens, and in another of the same species, the 



