and Importance of their Preservation. 405 



The importance of indelibly marking type specimens, and 

 the separate parts of each, so that they may be studied essen- 

 tially as found, is also evident. If a type is restored with 

 plaster or other substance, the limits of each should not be so 

 obscured that investigators cannot distinguish them. These 

 are not imaginary precautions. Cases of the kind mentioned 

 are not uncommon in vertebrate paleontology, as every worker 

 knows. One well-known skull, with portions now preserved 

 in two museums, is restored in one of them, as an original, and 

 is thus misleading. 



Type specimens preserved from other dangers may be 

 injured unintentionally. Among the rare specimens damaged 

 by zealous but unskillful hands in the house of their friends, 

 three of the most important to paleontology, a reptile, a bird, and 

 a mammal are well-known examples, and not a few others both 

 in this country and America might be mentioned if it were 

 proper to do so on this occasion. Such lack of intelligent 

 custody of types will make the work of future investigators 

 much more difficult. 



An indirect way of preserving type specimens is by means 

 of casts. These, if accurately made, may be of much service, 

 and, in fact, an insurance on the original specimen. They 

 may often save an investigator a long journey, and in case the 

 type itself is lost or destroyed, the copy may prove of great 

 value in indicating what the name was intended to cover. 



Another indirect means of protecting type specimens would 

 be to publish catalogues of them, giving the places where they 

 are preserved. Such a list of a single group would be of 

 great service to any one investigating it, and could be renewed 

 from time to time whenever necessary. It would be well if 

 everyone who described a species also stated where the type 

 was deposited. In time this would become the established 

 usage, and thus greatly facilitate the preparation of catalogues 

 of types and their places of preservation. 



Paleontology has been called an exact science, but its records 

 up to the present time do not bear out this statement. If, as I 

 believe, it will yet be worthy of such a distinction, one means 

 of its advancement will be for those who represent it to select 

 better type specimens, and preserve them more carefully. 



In all branches of Natural Science, type specimens are the 

 lights that mark the present boundaries of knowledge. They 

 should be, therefore, not will-o'-the-wisps, leading unwary 

 votaries of science astray, but fixed beacon lights to guide and 

 encourage investigators in their search for new truth. 



Am. Jour. Sci. — Fourth Series, Vol. VI, No. 35. — November, 189S. 

 28 



