404 0. C. Marsh — Value of Type Specimens 



(2) The Preservation of Type Specimens. 



The careful preservation of their own type specimens is a 

 sacred duty on the part of all original investigators, and hardly 

 less so of those who are the custodians of such invaluable 

 evidence of the progress of natural science. 



Local museums, as a rule, are less desirable repositories of 

 type specimens than private collections, since the former 

 usually can have little hope of permanent care, while the 

 latter, if important, have a fair chance, by gift or purchase, of 

 becoming part of a large endowed museum, where those in 

 control are more likely to appreciate the importance of types, 

 and carefully preserve them. 



For the preservation of type specimens, fire-proof buildings 

 are indispensable. I recall no less than five Museums of 

 Natural History, in America, that have either been destroyed, 

 or their contents consumed, or seriously damaged by fire, since 

 I became actively interested in natural science. Several others, 

 in the meantime, have had narrow escapes from the same 

 danger, so that 1 regard all type specimens as insecure that 

 are not preserved in buildings practically safe from fire. 



Another danger to which type specimens are subject, is loss 

 or injury during transit, when loaned or otherwise sent away 

 from their regular place of deposit. This evil has become so 

 serious, that some museum authorities do not permit type 

 specimens to leave the building. This I regard as a wise 

 regulation, and it is now in force at JSTew Haven, and various 

 other scientific centers. 



If a type specimen is important, the investigator will come 

 to the type. I once made a long pilgrimage to a famous uni- 

 versity town, mainly to see a single bone, the u tibia " of an 

 extinct reptile, according to the description, and the type of a 

 new genus. I found the bone in good custody, and well pre- 

 served. It was not a tibia, however, but a radius, and this fact 

 changed the classification based upon it. Had that bone been 

 lost or destroyed, a new animal of strange proportions might 

 have existed on the records of Paleontology, if not in Nature. 

 That bone fortunately is still preserved, a witness whose 

 testimony is conclusive. 



When fossil skeletons are discovered in position, the best 

 methods of preservation, especially of types, requires the 

 retention as nearly as possible of the bones as found. One fore 

 and one hind foot, at least, should always be kept in the rock, 

 and all impressions in the matrix carefully preserved. 



