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OSTEOLOGICAL GALLERY. 



IN this Gallery are exhibited the skeletons and skulls of the Mam- 

 raalia, their order commencing on the left and running round the 

 Wall-Cases, as in the Mammalian Gallery. In the centre of the 

 room are arranged skeletons which are too large to be placed in 

 the Cases, and on the tops of the latter are the horns of the 

 (e hollow-horned Ruminants," viz. Oxen, Sheep, and Antelopes. 

 The largest skeletons (of Elephants, Giraffe, &c.) are exhibited in 

 the Saloon at the end of the Gallery, together with the collection 

 of Sirenia or Sea-Cows. 



Visitors who desire to understand the modifications of the bony 

 framework of the various types of Mammalia would do well to gain 

 some idea of the bones of which a normal Mammalian skeleton 

 is made up, and for this purpose the following woodcuts have been 

 prepared. Fig. 26 is the skeleton of a Lioness, and fig. 27 the 

 skull of a Dog divided down the centre to show its interior. 



The skeleton of a Mammal consists of an axial portion, contain- 

 ing the bones belonging to the central axis of the body, viz. the 

 skull, vertebral column, ribs, arid breast-bone ; and an appendicular 

 portion, comprising those which form the limbs, and the girdles of 

 bone by which the limbs are attached to the vertebral column. 



The skull is the portion of the axial skeleton which is by far 

 the most important to the systematic zoologist, who bases in great 

 part his classification of the Mammalia on the variations presented 

 by the skull and teeth, which latter, although really no part of the 

 internal skeleton, have, from their intimate relation with the skull, 

 to be treated as though they belonged to it. 



The skull consists of three parts (1) the cranium, a compli- 

 cated framework of bones united together to form a case for the 



