304 Transactions. — Zoology. 



science, that I attribute the wretched state of colonial museums so far as 

 indigenous beetles are concerned. Even at Melbourne the entomological 

 collection is beneath criticism. To preserve Coleoptera for an indefinite 

 period it is only necessary to put them into a phial containing any kind of 

 spirits. Ortlioptera and Hemiptera may be kept in the same manner, and 

 even Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, and Diptera will suffer but little from such 

 treatment. A still better method for beetles, and one which, undoubtedly, 

 preserves their colours more perfectly, is to put them into sawdust moistened 

 with spirits, care being taken not to make the mixture too wet. It now only 

 remains for me to express a hope, that, if not anticipated by an abler hand, I 

 may be in a position, on some future occasion, to lay before you fuller and 

 more exact information respecting this interesting order of insects. 



Art. XXX Y. — On the Skeleton of an Aboriginal Inhabitant of the Chatham 

 Islands. By F. J. Knox, L.RC.S.E. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 30th October, 1872.] 



The skeleton forming the subject of the following observations was that of a 

 female, in all probability of about middle age, and was obtained in a cave on 

 the Chatham Islands by Mr. H, Travers. The state of the bones indicates a 

 very lengthened exposure to the action of solvents leading to the dis- 

 appearance of the gelatine and chondrine, which form the original elementary 

 basis of the skeleton. A few of the bones were wanting, but these are of 

 slight comparative importance, so that the skeleton as now deposited in the 

 Museum will form an object of scientific inquiry inasmuch as it may be 

 depended upon, not only in its history but in its composition. 



In contemplating the trunk and its appendages the almost universal 

 lateral curvature of the spine towards the right shoulder, common amongst the 

 most highly civilized European classes, is observable in this instance. This 

 curvature is not considered pathological but perfectly natural, and arising from 

 a congenital increase in the development of the entire right side of the body. 

 An excurvation of the spine observed in some instances amoDgst the Maoris, 

 and attributed by some writers on the Maori race to the awkward form of 

 the entrance to their dwellings, is in fact the result of disease, inherited or 

 produced, and is much more common in the large cities of England than in 

 New Zealand. It is in fact a disease attacking in general the sixth or seventh 

 dorsal vertebrse, leading to suppuration in the bodies of these vertebrae, loss of 

 substance, and a consequent angular curvature of the column, terminating in 



