546 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



shelves we see human skulls of different ages, 

 from one day old to a hundred years, some of 

 them remarkable for the singularity of their form, 

 and chosen for the most part from amongst the 

 prodigious quantity preserved in the catacombs. 



From the walls of the staircase leading to the 

 first floor are suspended many heads of the horse, 

 the stag, the dolphin, the hippopotamus, and 

 several species of the ox tribe of different ages 

 and varieties. 



The first room above stairs is devoted to a se- 

 ries of entire heads of vertebrated animals a 

 great number of those of the human species, Eu- 

 ropeans, Tartars, Chinese, New Zealanders, Ne- 

 groes, Hottentots and of several American na- 

 tions ; all the monkeys, amongst which are an 

 an old and a young oran-outang, the examination 

 of which led to the opinion, that the pongo of 

 the island of Borneo is of the same genus and 

 perhaps of the same species with the oran- 

 outang ; several of the simia lar lately sent 

 over from India by MM. Diard and Duvaucel ; a 

 considerably number of all the carnivorous ani- 

 mals, amongst which are those of several species 

 of seal; every known species of the edentata, 

 and almost all the rodentia: some in the first of 

 these families belong to newly discovered spe- 

 cies. Amongst the pachydermata we remark 



