small Scottish College. Years passed by. Quite recently an import- 
ant question arose as to the dentition of an extinct order of Mam- 
mals the remains of which occur both in the old world and the 
new. I wrote to the President of the Scottish institution referred 
to requesting him to have a cast of the skull figured in the writings 
of the great paleographer made for me. Though a carefully executed 
and beautifully lithographed figure of the specimen exists, it is 
impossible from this figure to be quite sure whether the Animal 
possessed upper incisors or not. I received no answer. I then wrote 
to Dr. SMITH WOODWARD, the head of the Geological Depart- | 
ment of the British Museum, requesting him to use his good offices 
in securing for me that which I wished to see. At last after long 
writing he received an answer from the institution stating that a 
tradition existed that at one time such a collection had been given 
to the college, but that the janitor of the building, the only one 
now living who seemed to have any recollection of the matter, 
stated that a number of years ago these « old bones » had been by 
order of one of the professors cleaned out of the Museum and put 
into the courtyard, where they were afterwards buried under the 
flower-beds. Dr. WOODWARD wrote me it was his intention to get 
permission to dig up this courtyard in order if possible to recover 
the types of Falconer's Fossil Fauna of the Siwalik Hills. I 
narrate this little incident because it is instructive, and shows in a 
striking manner the dangers to which invaluable and most 
| important collections are exposed when entrusted to the custody 
of institutions in which there are not men who comprehend the 
value of such things and where there do not exist the means which 
are necessary for their preservation. The private student has not 
discharged the whole of his duty in merely naming and describing 
the species he has acquired. He should attend to it either in person 
or by testamentary provision that the types of his species be placed 
where they will be sacredly guarded and where they may be con- 
sulted by those who come after him. 
The museums of small colleges and provincial towns are not, as 
a rule, proper resting-places for scientific types. They should be 
placed in the greater and more amply endowed institutions, where 
they are reasonably certain of being properly esteemed and sedul- 
