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REPORT ON OSTEOLOGY. 



By Daniel Denison Slade. 



The osteological collections remain as stated in the last Report. 

 No material has been added, owing to the lack of funds which 

 might be so usefully applied to the increase of the collection of dis- 

 articulated skeletons, still sadly deficient in several of the orders. 



Specimens, as heretofore, have been received for identification. 

 Among these were portions of a human skeleton lately exhumed 

 in the vicinity of Chicopee, Massachusetts. Being determined as 

 Aboriginal, and as they offered several unusual and interesting 

 anatomical points, with the permission of the gentleman by whom 

 they were forwarded, they were presented to the Peabody Museum, 

 for the advancement of the Science of Ethnology. 



The plan adopted during the preceding year, for conducting the 

 course of Comparative Osteology as one of research, was pursued, 

 but with only partial success, as shown by the paucity of students 

 who applied. The increased number of elective studies, and the 

 addition of two half-courses in Zoology, given by teachers admi- 

 rably fitted for the work, undoubtedly contributed in great measure 

 to this result. 



A plan similar to that published in the curriculum for the ensu- 

 ing year will be adopted, with the expectation that it will not 

 exclude those who wish to acquire a general knowledge of the 

 framework upon which the bodies of Vertebrate animals is con- 

 structed, and which is so essential to the student of Zoology. At 

 the same time, it will prove whether there are those who wish 

 to avail themselves of the highest usefulness of the Museum, 

 in pursuing original investigation in this as well as in other 

 Departments. 



