Oct. 



1872] 



NA TURE 



535 



pretence of foreign matter, apparently dust, in the interior of his 

 magnetic instruments. He now writes : — " In Nature, vol. vi. 

 p. 2 So, Fig. 2, is a thing very like the organic functions I speak 

 of as being seen on the knife edge and plane of the vertical force 

 ma^netograph. I have described it as looking like the ' inter- 

 lacing tea leafstalks,' doubtless it was beginnings of life." 



Clin any of your readers state if it is probable that such objects 

 are to he found in tlie place he names. 



Kew Observatory, Oct. 23 G. Mathus Whipple 



THE APPEAL FOR SKELETONS OF WILD 

 ANIMALS 



T AM glad to see that Mr. Moseley has started the 

 J- question of the acquisition of skeletons of wild animals, 

 a subject which has hitherto been too much neglected by 

 those who have charge of museums. Mr. Moseley might 

 have put his case more strongly than he has done ; for 

 not only are the two museums he mentions destitute of 

 skeletons of the wild specimens of the larger Fdidce, but, 

 so far as I know, no European museum possesses more 

 than skulls. Possibly there may be an entire skeleton in 

 the very rich museum of Leyden, but there are none in 

 the British INIuseum, nor at Paris, nor Vienna, so far as I 

 have been able to examine those collections. We are 

 belter off at Cambridge, for we not only have a consider- 

 able series of skulls of tigers, leopards, and the so-called 

 "maneless" hon of Guzerat, but a fine skeleton of a 

 Puma [^Fclis concolor) sent home from Florida in excel- 

 lent condition by one of that much-abused class, " sports- 

 men." 



There is, however, a subject even more important 

 than the acquisition of foreign animals, namely, the col- 

 lection of a good series of skeletons of different ages and 

 sexes of all the European mammals. This is no easy 

 matter, even in the case of the commoner species. We 

 have only lately succeeded in acquiring an adult skeleton 

 of the Red Deer {CcrvKs thiphiis) ; but the one we have 

 obtained (through the kindness of Mr. Balfour, of Trinity 

 College) is an adult Royal stag, so fine as to be worth 

 waiting any length of time for. Again, how many 

 museums possess a skeleton of the brown bear of Europe, 

 or the lynx, or the glutton, or the wolf, or even really 

 good skeletons of such comparatively common animals 

 as the badger, the otter, and the numerous small Vivcr- 

 riila ? And yet the bones of these occur more frequently 

 in turbaries than do those of the extinct Fclida: in caves, 

 while they are certain to become extinct from the pressure 

 of civilisation and the consequent restriction of their 

 range, far sooner even than those large animals which are 

 directly persecuted, as tigers are in India. 



I find it easier almost to get skeletons sent from abroad 

 than to have them collected in England. Any gentleman 

 who unites with love of sport a knowledge of natural 

 history — no uncommon combination — will often send home 

 considerable collections, and take great trouble to procure 

 the different animals that he has been asked to look for. 

 Such a collection we have just received from Lord Wal- 

 singham (of Trinity College), formed by him in North- 

 west America. It includes complete skeletons of Ovis 

 monlana, Antilocapra amcncana (Pronghorn), white- 

 tailed stag, mule deer, black bear, beaver, martin, besides 

 a series of separate skulls. Last year we got an Otaria 

 from San Francisco, one of the herd which the intelligent 

 citizens of that capital are wise enough to preserve, and a 

 musk-ox from the German North-Polar Expedition. In I 

 short, there are few animals that may not be acquired by 1 

 energy and perseverance ; and travellers in distant 

 countries are fond of showing that they have not forgotten 

 their old university ; but it is infinitely more difficult to 

 induce gentlemen, ortheir keepers, in England or Scotland, 

 to collect the wild animals that still linger in their pre- 

 serves ; and this is the direction in which I venture to 

 think an effort should be made. 



The " directions for preparing skeletons " given by 

 Mr. Moseley are excellent. Allow me to make one 

 or two additions to them. It is most important to 

 note the s«x of each animal, with the locality in 

 which it was taken and the date of its capture. I 

 do not recominend the soaking of the carcase in water 

 after the muscles have been removed. It loosens the 

 ligaments, and makes the after-process of drying more 

 difficult — a process which is difficult enough in Europe, 

 especially in mountainous districts. Moreover, it is diffi- 

 cult to find a suitable place to do it in abroad. I find the 

 colour of the bones not seriously affected by the non- 

 extraction of the blood. The skeleton may be packed up 

 before it is quite dry if sawdust be substituted for hay or 

 straw. Pine sawdust is especially good for this purpose. 

 It is very fine, dry, and slightly antiseptic. 



Museum, Cambridge, Oct. 24 J. W. Clark 



THE ZOOLOGICAL STATION AT NAPLES 

 CINCE the last notice given in Nature,* the building 

 *~-' is almost finished, and all endeavours are now con- 

 centrated upon the arrangements of the interior. Two 

 more months, and the fifty-three tanks of the public 

 aquarium will be ready to be filled with the clear and 

 limpid water of the Mediterranean. 



The upper story receives still more attention. My plan 

 of letting the tables having met with great applause from 

 all sides, has worked some changes in the general arrange- 

 ments of the rooms. The room previously intended for 

 the library has been added to the great laborator)-, which 

 now measures 40 ft. in length, 25 ft. in breadth, and 24 ft. 

 in height. It has three great arched windows 20 ft. 

 high and left, broad, to the north, and three smaller ones 

 looking into the small light-court in the centre of the 

 building. The former three windows will give light to 

 six microscopic tables, whilst the three smaller windows 

 will yield enough light to three tables fitted up for com- 

 mon anatomical work. In the centre of the laboratory 

 a wooden stand will be placed, 27 ft. in length and 8 ft. in 

 breadth, and having three stories. This stand will bear 

 tanks of different sizes — the lowest story the heaviest, the 

 upper the smallest. The latter will be moveable, so as to 

 allow close inspection on the working table. Each of 

 them will receive a small current of sea' vvater,|and will 

 have its ov/n outlet, so as to isolate completely its contents 

 irom the neighbouring tanks. There will be plenty of 

 room for some sixty or eighty tanks. The water running 

 out of them is collected, and runs down into the tanks of 

 the public aquarium. Four doors unite the laboratory to 

 the three adjacent smaller rooins, which are provided 

 each with a working table and with tanks, whilst the 

 fourth door leads to a corridor and to the staircase. A 

 gallery all round the walls of the laboratory, at the height 

 of fourteen feet, will furnish room for the library. Two 

 small staircases unite it to the floor of the laboratory, and 

 four narrow doors to four adjacent small rooms, of which 

 two may be used as reading-rooms for making notes, &c. 

 It will be absolutely forbidden to take any book out of 

 the building. 



On the same floor as this great morphological laboratory, 

 the physiological one is to be found ; indeed the door 

 which opens to the corridor leads also immediately to the 

 room destined for this purpose. Its length is 20 ft. by 

 14 ft.; it has several glass doors to thewest, opening upon 

 an ante-room as wide as the room itself, and which, in case 

 of need, can easily be transformed into a laboratory, thus 

 enlarging the physiological laboratory to double its present 

 size ; it has a separate tube, with a constant supply of 

 sea-water, and a table for microscopic w ork. Prof, du Bois- 

 Reymond has promised to assist in arranging instruments 

 and apparatus for experimental use. 



* See Nature, Vol. v, p. 437 . 



