DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 213 



All these specimens are included in the statistics of the entire col- 

 lection previously given. 



For two years past the exhibition series of the Departments of Mam- 

 mals and Comparative Anatomy, occupying one-eighth the exhibition 

 space of the Museum Building, have been prepared, mounted, classified, 

 arranged and labeled by six persons only. These are the curator of 

 mammals and one assistant, the chief taxidermist and one assistant, 

 the osteological preparator and one assistant. When it is taken into 

 consideration that to mount properly an animal like a tiger or a deer, 

 or to prepare and mount the skeleton of a whale, a serpent, or a large 

 fish occupied the attention of one person for one or more weeks ; it will 

 be conceded that with the present force of preparators the enlargement 

 of the exhibition series can not be very rapid. On the other hand, 

 when it is understood that every specimen (and as two hundred have 

 been received in a single day) has to be entered' in the register, with 

 name, locality name of donor and collector, etc., and also in the card 

 catalogue, and be furnished with a number stamped in tin or wood, it 

 will be admitted that a single clerk must necessarily find himself un- 

 able to attend to the task of examining, arranging, rebottling, and 

 labeling material already accumulated. 





