﻿Proceedings of the Society. 



89 



The collection of skulls from this locality is very large, and they 

 are in an excellent state of preservation. They offer great induce- 

 ments for study, when taken in connection with the large number 

 of casts of skulls from various parts of the world, and a careful 

 study of them might reveal some important facts. One often hears 

 that our North American Indians had perfect teeth. Such things 

 are first asserted, and then copied from one author to another, 

 until they are accepted as facts. The series of skulls from the Red 

 Bank Cemetery, on the Little Miami River, throws important light 

 upon such and similar assertions. The study of their teeth, and 

 some comparisons which could be readily made in the department 

 of Anthropology in this Society, would undoubtedly make a very 

 important contribution to the character of those people and their 

 food. While my department has held out tempting subjects like 

 these, time has not allowed me room to accept them. I can but 

 call attention to them, and suggest them to the various members 

 of the Society who may want to work in an interesting direction. 

 The needs of this department are, like those of the associated de- 

 partments, almost unlimited. Time and space would be wasted 

 in pointing out where our collection could be strengthened, com- 

 pleted for study, or arranged in better order, if there was money 

 enough to do it. While I call your attention to our needs, and 

 will point them out if you are willing and anxious to furnish the 

 money to carry out these new suggestions, yet I think there is one 

 matter so much more important and more pressing than the others, 

 that I venture to make special mention of it here — I refer to the 

 matter of exploration of mounds, and suggest and recommend to 

 the Society, and new Executive Board to make provision to ex- 

 plore a few each year. These monuments of the past races are 

 rapidly fading under the plow, or yielding their hidden secrets to 

 distant societies. The consent of educated farmers to allow these 

 explorations can be easily obtained now. How long this state of 

 affairs will continue, no one can tell. Such explorations could be 

 conducted by the Custodian in connection with your new Curator 

 in this department, and a few hundred dollars annually expended 

 in this direction, would yield immense results in the aggregate in 

 a few years, and at the same time enrich the collection of our 



