108 A Remarkable Deformed Skeleton. 



blind to facts which are opposed to our prepossessions, or 

 may conceal from us their true import when we behold 

 them." There may be consolation in the reflection that the 

 blindness thus occasionally affecting even earnest scientific 

 investigators has not happened by chance, having been 

 predicted. (See Isaiah xxix. 14.) The up-hill task of 

 demolishing the unsound fabric of theory, based upon long- 

 cherished but fallacious "prepossessions," may be arduous 

 unless light be granted, making it clear that according to 

 Galileo, " Scripture and Nature proceed from the same 

 Source, and are, therefore, incapable of speaking a different 

 language." He pointed out the absurdity of supposing that 

 professors of astronomy would refuse to believe those deduc- 

 tions of reason which appealed to their judgment with all 

 the power of demonstration. Yet Galileo's noblest discoveries 

 were the derision of his contemporaries ! Brewster remarks 

 that "men are not necessarily obstinate because they cleave 

 to deeply-rooted errors ; nor are they absolutely dull when 

 they are long in understanding, and slow in embracing newly- 

 discovered truths." Therefore we must bear in mind that in 

 questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth 

 the humble reasoning of a single individual. " The simplest 

 ideas," La Place remarks, " are usually those which are the 

 last to force themselves upon us." 



Art. XVII. — On a Remarkable Symmetrically Deformed 

 Skeleton. By George B. Halford, M.D., Professor of 

 Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology, in the University 

 of Melbourne. 



[Read 24th September, 1868.] 



This remarkably deformed skeleton is the property of the 

 Melbourne University. It was purchased for me at Paris in 

 1862, by Messrs. Raginal and Co., and is stated to have been 

 prepared by the late Dr. Sue. The being, whose skeleton is 

 here represented, with pipe in hand, is said to have played 

 the instrument on the steps of one of the churches in 

 Paris, and to have attained the age of twenty-eight years. 

 Further than this, I have not been able to obtain any in- 

 formation. 



The height of the skeleton as it now rests is two feet six 



