136 NATURAL (SCIENCE. FEB., 
aware that the powers of the anatomist—great as they undoubtedly 
are—are not equal to the task of making anything approaching a 
correct restoration from such materials.? 
For instance, what sort of a creature would have been the result 
of attempting to restore the Macrothere from the foot-bones which 
were long supposed to be the only portions of the skeleton known, 
although its teeth and jaws lay all the time in the national collection— 
in a case half the length of the gallery from the one containing the 
former ? 
This overwhelming confidence in what the anatomist could be 
legitimately supposed to effect led to the grotesque so-called restora- 
tions of the Iguanodon and other Secondary reptiles set up many 
years ago at Sydenham, where, we believe, they still remain to delude 
an unsuspecting public. Needless to say, the creatures thus modelled 
in plaster were monsters in every sense of the word, and about as 
unlike anything that ever existed inheaven or earth as they well 
could be. | 
Now, however, mous avons changé tout cela; and all those who know 
anything at all about the subject are fully aware that it would be 
idle to think of restoring any monster of a totally extinct type without 
having, at least, its skull, the bones of both fore- and hind-limbs, and 
some portion—the more the better—of its backbone. In this country, 
and Europe generally, as a well-known paleontologist once remarked, 
we prefer (from necessity) to construct our Dinosaurs piecemeal—and 
nice little squabbles we sometimes get into over these aforesaid 
pieces; and it would accordingly, with one or two exceptions, have 
been long before we should have been justified in attempting their 
full restoration, even if this were ever possible. Fortunately, how- 
ever, America has stepped into the gap, and given us Dinosaur 
skeletons by the dozen; so abundantly, indeed, they may almost be 
said to be a drug in the market. We have horned Dinosaurs, four- 
legged Dinosaurs, two-legged Dinosaurs, and mail-clad Dinosaurs, 
all and every one of which are creatures more like the phantoms of a 
dream than ‘any we should naturally have thought of as denizens of 
this world of ours. 
Hitherto we have known these marvellous creatures only by 
their skeletons; and although these are, perhaps, fully sufficient for 
the scientific student, yet it is quite clear that they do not arouse 
the enthusiasm of the public, by whom they are doubtless not 
‘‘understanded.”” Now, however, thanks to our author and his 
artist, we have them depicted in at least some semblance of their 
original guise, the artist having taken the skeleton as his model in 
each case, and clothed it in flesh and skin as best he might. 
When we take into consideration the extreme difficulty of this 
task, we cannot but think that the draughtsman has acquitted him- 
2 We were surprised to see the other day in the Times the statement that 
Sir R. Owen restored the Megathere from a single bone. 
