ARRANGEMENT AND PRESERVATION OF LARGE 
COLLECTIONS OF HUMAN BONES FOR 
PURPOSES OF INVESTIGATION. 
ALES HRDLICKA. 
SINCE my mention, nearly a year ago,! of a definite method 
in the care of bones which are to be utilized for investigation, 
I have received several inquiries as to the details of such a 
method. As the subject is not without importance, I think it 
will be useful to bring the particulars to the general attention 
of the anatomists. 
My practical experience with bones was gained principally 
in the anatomical department of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, New York, and in the American Museum of Naturak 
History, the same city; besides this, I had a chance to make 
observations on a number of large anatomical, anthropological, 
and zoological bone collections both here and abroad. 
The remarks which follow apply only to collections of human 
bones, in fact, principally to large (established or prospective) 
collections of the bones of whites. They apply further only 
to a general method of the care of bones, which will easily 
allow any especially desirable exceptions by individual inves- 
tigators, such as the treatment of the whole spinal column 
(Dwight), pelvis, etc. 
For small collections, for anthropological and zoólogical col- 
lections of bones, probably the best general rule is to keep, 
in appropriate series, all the bones of each skeleton together, 
minus the skull. Each bone should bear the number of the 
Skeleton. The skulls of the same tribe of people or species 
of animals are kept together, heading the series. Each dis- 
tinct group of skulls and skeletons in a collection is divided 
and arranged in at least three groups: the children or young, 
! Before the Association of American Anatomists, New York, December, 1898, 
Paper on Tibia. ` 
9 
