1867.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE RHINOCEROTIDiE. 1031 



CCELODONTA PALLASII. 



Rhinoceros, Pallas, Acta Acad. Petrop. 1777, ii. 210, t. 9 ; Nov. 

 Com. Petrop. xiii, 447, t. 9, 10. 



Rhinoceros tichorinus, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. ii. 64, t. 7. f. 1 (skull), 

 t. 8, 9, 1 1, 14 (bones) ; Blainv. Ostcogr. t, 13 (from Pallas). 



R. pallasii, Desm. Mam. 402. 



R. antiquitatis, Blainv. 



Rhinoceros de Siberie, Cuv. Ann. Mus. xii. 19, t. 1, 3, 4. 



Hub. Siberia, in the ice ; Fossil, Himalaya &c. 



The following measurements are given in inches and lines, taken by 

 a pair of callipers ; so they are a straight line (or chord) from point 

 to point indicated, and not a line over or along the surface. I be- 

 lieve thev are sufficient for all zoological purposes ; but it is the 

 fashion of some zoologists and comparative anatomists to give mea- 

 surements with three, and sometimes even four places of decimals, 

 this arising from their taking a metre, about 39 inches, for the 

 unit, which requires one decimal place for any measured or part of a 

 measured inch or space under 39 inches, two for any similar mea- 

 surement under 4 inches, and three for any under 5 lines. Others, 

 to avoid this evil, write of 20 or 130 mm. (millimetres) ; but this is 

 as inconvenient, as the latter unit is as much too small as the other 

 is too large. 



On pointing out this evil to a naturalist, who has published long 

 tables with such admeasurements, he replied, did it not look very 

 scientific 1 I fear, unfortunately, there is a desire to mystify general 

 readers, and a quackery in natural history as in other less ennobling 

 studies. 



I have never yet met with a naturalist, even German or French, 

 that could show me the size of a bone marked in the French metrical 

 system ; few cannot do this with considerable accuracy when marked 

 in inches or feet. The having a measurement of well-known different 

 lengths, as yards, feet, inches, or lines, which bear a relation to some 

 parts of our own bodies, is a great advantage not found in the me- 

 trical system. 



