PROF. MARSH ON TYPE SPECIMENS. l6l 



that some museum authorities do not permit type specimens to 

 leave the building. This I regard as a wise regulation, and it is 

 now in force at New Haven, and various other scientific centres. 



If a type specimen is important, the investigator will come to 

 the type. I once made a long pilgrimage to a famous university 

 town, mainly to see a single bone, the "tibia" of an extinct reptile, 

 according to the description, and the type of a new genus. I 

 found the bone in good custody, and well preserved. It was not a 

 tibia, however, but a radius, and this fact changed the classification 

 based upon it. Had that bone been lost or destroyed, a new 

 animal of strange proportions might have existed on the records of 

 Paleontology, if not in Nature. That bone fortunately is still pre- 

 served, a witness whose testimony is conclusive. 



When fossil skeletons are discovered in position, the best 

 methods of preservation, especially of types, require the retention 

 as nearly as possible of the bones as found. One fore and one 

 hind foot, at least, should always be kept in the rock, and all 

 impressions in the matrix carefully preserved. 



The importance of indelibly marking type specimens, and the 

 separate parts of each, so that all may be studied essentially as 

 found, is also evident. If a type is restored with plaster or other 

 substance, the limits of each should not be so obscured that investi- 

 gators cannot distinguish them. These are not imaginary precau- 

 tions. Cases of the kind mentioned are not uncommon in vertebrate 

 paleontology, as every worker knows. One well-known skull, with 

 portions now preserved in two museums, is restored in one of them, 

 as an original, and is thus misleading. 



Type specimens preserved from other dangers may be injured 

 unintentionally. Among the rare specimens damaged by zealous 

 but unskilful hands in the house of their friends, three of the most 

 important to Paleontology, a reptile, a bird, and a mammal, are 

 well-known examples, and not a few others both in this country 

 and America might be mentioned if it were proper to do so on this 

 occasion. Such lack of intelligent custody of types will make the 

 work of future investigators much more difficult. 



An indirect way of preserving type specimens is by means of 

 casts. These, if accurately made, may be of much service, and, in 

 fact, an insurance on the original specimen. They may often save 

 an investigator a long journey, and in case the type itself is lost or 

 destroyed, the copy may prove of great value in indicating what 

 the name was intended to cover. 



Another indirect means of protecting type specimens would be 

 to publish catalogues of them, giving the places where they are 

 preserved. Such a list of a single group would be of great service 

 to anyone investigating it, and could be renewed from time to 

 time whenever necessary. It would be well if everyone who 

 described a species also stated where the type was deposited. In 

 time this would become the established usage, and thus greatly 



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