Annual Report.} , 174 [May 1, 
floor of the hall. As it would have been a matter of great 
difficulty, if not an impossibility, to represent the interverte- 
bral cartilages so that each should have its proportions per- 
fectly normal, it was decided to suppress them. Consequently 
the length of the skeleton does not exceed forty-five feet, 
which implies a loss of three feet. It is suspended about 
twenty feet from the floor and forty feet from the ceiling, by 
three wire ropes for the head, two loops, besides a single wire 
rope, for the spinal column. The head was suspended in- 
dependently of the spinal column, though they were subse- 
quently attached. One wire rope pierces the beak near its 
end, and is attached to the middle of an iron bar connecting 
the mandibles, which are held behind by the extremities of 
the two posterior ropes, each of which pierces the outer 
part of the squamosal. Nuts on these ropes maintain the 
proper distance between the lower jaw and the skull. The 
relations can be changed, if desired, by altering the length of 
the ropes from the ceiling and the positions of the nuts. 
The body of each vertebra was bored in three places by 
a half inch drill. One hole is near the inferior border in the » 
median line, the other two are through the upper and outer 
parts of the body. Wrought iron rods three-eighths inch 
thick and twelve feet long (except near the ends of the col- 
umn) were passed through these holes, and so arranged that 
while most of the vertebrae were pierced by three continuous 
rods, there should never be more than one break in any 
given vertebra. The ends of the inferior rods were fastened 
securely together, and the couplings countersunk in the 
bones. Towards the end of the tail but two rods were 
used, and finally only one. 
The anterior suspending loop passes through the bases of 
the transverse processes of the 14th dorsal, the second through 
those of the 12th lumbar, and the single rope through the 
body of the 10th caudal vertebra. As has been anticipated, 
the flexibility of the iron rods was so great that almost any 
eurve could be obtained by regulating the lengths of the 
