400 THE PEABODY MUSEUM. 



that look like the dome of thought, but unfortunatelj^ they belonged to 

 chimpanzees ; while other skulls, with low crowns and scarcely ixny forehead, 

 once held the brains of some Indian chief or South Sea Islander. In this 

 display of anatomy woman holds the place of honor, the finest of the skele- 

 tons of the human race being that called by the disrespectful attendants of 

 the Museum, the "Chicago Girl." Her figure was tall and admirably pro- 

 yjortioned, but the special interest which attaches to her skeleton is that she 

 possessed an extra pair of ribs, or rather riblets, attached to the seventh 

 cervical vertebra. Ordinary mortals are not thus provided with a spare rib ; 

 perhaps Adam was in his younger daj^s. The ^'Chicago Grirl" might have 

 been an adept in dancing, for in both feet the bone on the inside of the ele- 

 vation of the instep, which in ordinary skeletons is a single bone, with her 

 is of two pieces, doubtless giving additional flexibility. Compared with 

 this yoimg lady, the bones of a Chinaman (21 years of age) standing along- 

 side, show a feebler frame. From the well-known custom of the Chinese of 

 carrying the coi-pses of their deceased countrymen back to the homes of their 

 ancestors, skeletons of that race are among the most diflftcult to obtain ; but 

 the Museum is rich in Asiatic bones, and has one of the finest collections of 

 Chinese and Japanese skulls in the world. It seems to be the general rule 

 with the specimens throughout the Museum that each of them is rare, pecu- 

 liar, or hard to match, and many of them are consequent!}- of high value. 

 Every known species of some of the rarer groups is here represented. 

 Among them are the anthropoid apes, orangs, gorillas and chimpanzees old 

 and young, and of each sex; and numerous brain casts, as well as skulls, 

 that will afford food for thought not to the anatomist only, but also to the 

 metaphysician. Other museums considered themselves enriched b}' a single 

 skeleton or even a skull of a gorilla, and few are so fortunate ; here there are 

 half a dozen skeletons of that animal, and also many of its skulls ; the other 

 rnan-like apes are even more fully represented. But it is time to notice the 

 systematic arrangement of the osteological specimens in this room : it is as 

 follows : 



Primates : including men, monkeys and lemurs. 



Carnivora : including bears, hyenas, tigers, cats, dogs, etc.; also, the sea 

 otter, wolverine, walrus, seal, etc. 



Ungulates: divided into Artiodactyls or even-toed aninnals, such as goats 

 and sheep, deer, antelopes, bovines, camels, various swine, etc. ; Perissodac- 

 tyls or odd-toed animals, such as the tapir, rhinoceros, and a complete series 

 of the equine group; Probiscidians and Hyracoidoa, a case where extremes 

 meet, as the one sub-division includes the elephant and the other the hyrax 

 or coney. 



Eodents : such as rabbits, squirrels, beavers, and all kinds of rats and 

 mice. 



Cetaceans and Sirenians : such as the whale, joorpoise, dolphin, manatee, 

 dugong. 



Edentates: such as the armadillo, ai, sloth, ant-eater. 



