610 
The development of the facilities for 
plastic reproduction of morphological ob- 
jects enables the museum to enter into con- 
nection with other institutions for purposes 
of exchange and scientific intercourse. 
In connection with the utilization of the 
human material for the museum I desire to 
mention briefly the Reference Collection in 
Osteology, as part of tHe plan of offering 
opportunities for extensive morphological 
and anthropological research. This col- 
lection includes : 
1. The disarticulated skeletons of verte- 
brate animals. 
These are kept in boxes, arranged like 
the books of a library, accurately cata- 
logued and indexed, so that any desired 
skeleton can be immediately found and 
used. The collection is placed in the os- 
teological laboratory. It is proposed to 
make the collection thoroughly representa- 
tive, and to include sufficient individual 
specimens of each form to avoid erroneous 
deductions possibly based on unusual vari- 
ations. 
2. The department includes, in the second 
place, a reference collection of human bones, 
on a scale which renders possible a thor- 
ough comparative study in reference to 
racial character, variations, reversions, 
age and sex differentiations, etc. The col- 
lection is now approaching the limit which 
we originally designed for it, viz., 5,000 
specimens of each of the bones of the 
human body, but will be extended beyond 
this point. Iam gratified that this ma- 
terial has afforded one of our members, 
Dr. A. Hrdlicka, opportunity for some 
very interesting researches, some of which 
have already been presented to this asso- 
ciation, while his more recent results are 
to come before us at this meeting. The 
value of the collection is greatly increased 
by our system of record-keeping, which 
makes the material available for anthropo- 
logical study in the widest sense. We ob- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. XIII. No. 329. 
tain now, from the hospital records, the 
necessary data as to parentage, age, birth- 
place, etc., of each subject delivered at the 
college. These data are entered upon the 
record under a running number, which fol- 
lows each bone on a lead tag through all 
stages of maceration and preparation until 
it is turned into the reference collection as 
finished. Consequently this collection does 
not represent merely a catacomb of human 
bones indiscriminately packed together, but 
each bone, with its origin and history 
clearly indicated, becomes a member of a 
series available for scientific comparative 
work. 
The same system is applied to all varia- 
tions of the soft parts obtained from the 
dissecting room,and the variation collec- 
tion of the general museum becomes in a 
like manner the means of promoting scien- 
tific inquiry into the causes and conditions 
at present operative in human evolution. 
V. DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY. 
I may merely mention that a good work- 
ing morphological library, containing the 
standard works and the more important 
current periodicals, forms part of the acces- 
sory equipment of the museum. 
VI. LABELING AND CATALOGUE. 
In conclusion I may briefly refer to the 
method of labeling and cataloguing the 
collection which we have found most use- 
ful. 
The catalogue is divided into the general 
and accession catalogue. Hach specimen as 
received is given an accession number. On 
the card slip, corresponding to the number 
in the accession catalogue, are entered all 
the data concerning the animal, as source of 
supply, date of receipt, weight of body and 
of individual parts, presumable age, sex, 
method of preparation, individual peculiari- 
ties, etc., and finally a complete list of the 
finished preparations derived from the 
