BOOM ML SPDTAL COLUMN OF THE IGUAXODOST. 257 



by the anatomist of the present day, who is surrounded by 

 the richest osteological museum in the world, and has spread 

 before him the collections made during the last thirty years 

 by diligent labourers in the field, who discovered the bones in 

 the strata, and with their own hands extricated and developed 

 them from the rock, unaided by pecuniary rewards from 

 associations, or societies, or by government grants ; and who 

 toiled on, actuated solely by that ardent thirst for knowledge, 

 and desire to advance a favourite science, which the genuine 

 worker and searcher after truth can alone comprehend and 

 appreciate. If the Hunterian Professor, with the immense 

 advantages which are at his command, and standing on a pin- 

 nacle raised by the labours of" genuine workers and searchers 

 after truth,** sometimes feels embarrassed, and in extenua- 

 tion of mistaken interpretations of dismembered portions of 

 skeletons, finds it necessary to observe, tha^ "Above all 

 tilings, in our attempts to gain a prospect of an unknown 

 world by the difficult ascent of the fragmentary ruins of a 

 former temple of life, we ought to note the successful efforts, 

 as well as the occasional deviations from the right track, with 

 a clear and unprejudiced glance, and record them with a 

 strict regard to truth : " ' how much more may the original 

 discoverer, explorer, and interpreter of "the fragmentary 

 ruins of former temples of life," up which the Hunterian 

 Professor has ascended, claim indulgent consideration for his 

 guesses at truth, from those who have so greatly profited by 

 them ; and deprecate the " unamiable exaggeration " of his 

 imperfect investigations, and the disparagement of his labours, 



and the " misrepresentations," that appear in the Monograph 

 from which the above admonition is extracted. 



Vertebral Column. The structure of the middle dorsal, and 

 anterior caudal vertebrae of the Iguanodon, was first made 

 known by the figures and descriptions in my various works on 

 the Geology and Fossil remains of the South-East of England ; 

 and subsequently established by the discovery of corresponding 

 bones in the Maidstone specimen, associated with other parts 

 of the skeleton ; for although the vertebrae in that fossil are 



\. greatly distorted, their distinctive characters may be recog- 



I nised by due attention. 



1 "Monograph on the Fossil Beptilia of the Cretaceous Formation." 

 Palaeontographical Society, 1851, p. 83. 



