86 THE MUSEUM OF THE vn 



But Hunter's ideas were far different. He tried to bring 

 together analogous parts according to their uses organs of 

 progressive motion adapted for flying eyes modified for 

 seeing in water eyes modified for seeing in air, and so forth. 

 Practically, such a system could not be logically carried out. 

 Too many modifications of form were found to occur, to which 

 no special modification of function could be assigned, a com- 

 promise had to be made, and in the large number of cases the 

 organs had to be arranged according to the affinities of the 

 animals to which they belonged brains of fishes, brains of 

 birds, brains of mammals, etc. As the collection continues to 

 advance, the classification according to homology is gradually 

 superseding that according to analogy, with which it began. 



This collection at present contains 6982 specimens mounted 

 in bottles, of which 3745, or more than one-half, are Hunterian. 

 It may be convenient to know that these are distinguished by 

 the figures upon them which refer to the catalogue being 

 painted in black. The specimens added since Hunter's time 

 are lettered in red. The greater number of the former must 

 be fully a century old, and being still in as perfect preservation 

 as when first put up, afford a fair guarantee of the absolute 

 permanence, with proper care, of specimens preserved in alcohol. 

 The skill displayed in dissecting, injecting, and mounting the 

 majority of these preparations has scarcely ever been surpassed 

 in modern times, and this collection alone, if it were all that 

 Hunter had left, would be a grand monument to his industry 

 and zeal for anatomical knowledge ; as is its valuable and 

 instructive descriptive catalogue, published in five volumes, and 

 completed in the year 1840, a lasting evidence of the same 

 qualities on the part of Mr. Cliffs eminent successor in the 

 conservatorship of the museum, Professor Owen. 



Many points in comparative anatomy can be illustrated 

 quite as efficiently, and more economically, by dried prepara- 

 tions, which require neither spirit nor bottles to preserve 

 them in. Though we have not attained in this country the 

 art of making such preparations in the elegant and instructive 

 manner pursued in several of the museums in Italy, notably 

 in that of Pisa, and though nearly all the original Hunterian 

 dried preparations have perished long ago, or become partially 



