94 R. W. SHUFELDT. 



Not long ago I prepared a memoir upon an interesting 

 family of Philippine and Malayan mammals, based on material 

 in my own collection, and on a very extensive series in the 

 Collections of the United States National Museum at Washing- 

 ton, D. C. It carries with it numerous Plates and Figures, and 

 will soon be published by the Bnreau of Science at Manila, P. I., 

 at the request of which institution it was written. Heretofore 

 the literature on this particular group was somewhat meagre, 

 and probably based on the published descriptions of single skele- 

 tons, and, as a consequence, I found errors with respect to the 

 skeleton in these animals in not a few of the general text- 

 books, as those of Owen, Huxley, Flower, and others, which 

 text-books have long been used in our scientific schools. It was 

 with difficulty that I convinced some of my confrères of the 

 existence of these errors. 



Very recently I have prepared, with numerous Plates, a 

 paper on the osteology of African and South American monkeys. 

 In it I correct not a few errors that have long been standing 

 in the aforesaid text-books, and, when this contribution the 

 other day came before the Publishing Commitee of one of the 

 large zoological societies in Europe, it could not see its way to 

 publishing it, for the reason that skeletons of those monkeys 

 were to be found in almost any museum of natural history. 

 More the pity, then, say I, that they do not study, describe, 

 figure and publish them, to the end that our text-books of the 

 future may be rid of errors that now deface those in use. 



The fact is, in years gone by, the museum material was 

 scanty, and, for the majority of the groups then known, science 

 could do but little else than describe one or more skeletons as 

 representative of each, and let it stand at that. Now, in some 

 of these groups in the museums, and in a great many others 

 besides, this material has been increased to series of skulls and 

 skeletons of great extent, and to eliminate these errors in our 

 standard works on comparative osteology and prevent others 



