552 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



may be here observed, that variations in nature are 

 quite as frequent amongst the inferior animals as 

 in the human species ; thus the opinion that they 

 are the result of the mother's imagination falls to 

 the ground, as it cannot be supposed that infe- 

 rior animals, as the rabbit, etc., amongst which 

 monsters are not uncommon, are susceptible of 

 these impressions. This room contains also pre- 

 parations of different orders of mollusca, arti- 

 culated animals and zoophytes; comprising all 

 those which M. Cuvier has had engraved for his 

 work on the anatomy of mollusca. On the 

 tables are twenty-four frames containing a series 

 of preparations of shell-fish in wax, made at 

 Naples under the direction of Poli, and procured 

 by professor Hermann of Strasburg. Some very 

 interesting and delicate preparations of the hard 

 parts of Crustacea and insects, made by M. Straus, 

 should be seen here ; but for want of space they 

 are deposited in the fourth room, next to the 

 frames which contain the teeth of fishes. 



To this rapid description of the cabinet of 

 comparative anatomy, and of the order of its ar- 

 rangement, we shall add a numerical list of the 

 preparations, which in December 1822 amounted 

 to 11,486. 



