Prof. 0. C. Marsh — The Value of Type- Specimens. 551 



For the preservation of type-specimens, fire-proof buildings are 

 indispensable. I recall no less than five Museums of Natural 

 History, in America, that have either been destroyed, or their 

 contents consumed, or seriously damaged by fire, since I became 

 actively interested in natural science. Several others, in the mean- 

 time, have had narrow escapes from the same danger, so that 

 I regard all type-specimens as insecure that are not preserved in 

 buildings practically safe from fire. 



Another danger to which type-specimens are subject, is loss or 

 injury during transit, when loaned or otherwise sent away from 

 their regular place of deposit. This evil has become so serious, 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 be 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 Palae- 

 ontology, if not in Nature. That bone fortunately is still preserved, 

 a witness whose testimony is conclusive. 



When fossil skeletons are discovered in position, the best methods 

 of preservation, especially of types, requires 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 they 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 in- 

 vestigators cannot distinguish them. These are not imaginary 

 precautions. Cases of the kind mentioned are not uncommon in 

 vertebrate palaeontology, 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 palaeontology, 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 Gg 

 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 



