THE 



MUSEUM GAZETTE 



No. 12. APRIL, 1907. Vol. i. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Every educational museum ought to possess, either in 

 rotation or permanently, the skull of a Hippopotamus. It is a 

 most instructive skull in several quite different directions. 

 In the first place its bones are very large and easily recog- 

 nised, and in the next they remain separate from each other 

 at a later period of life than in most animals. Thus it is a 

 good skull to serve as a type and with which to compare 

 others. Nor is it an expensive skull, for the animal is of 

 common occurrence throughout almost the whole of Africa, 

 is easily slaughtered, and its huge head and its ivory tusks 

 claim the attention of the hunter and are often sent home. 

 The hippopotamus has its nearest British alliance in the pig, 

 but unlike the latter, it has four toes. It has small crop ears, 

 an enormous face, a thick, oily and hairless skin, andean open 

 a wider mouth than any other living animal. On reliable 

 testimony it is said that it can bite a man in two. It is a 

 vegetable feeder, but does not ruminate, its huge front teeth 

 would be greatly in the way if it did. (See our frontispiece 

 and also p. 570.) 



One very definite result of our studies of physiognomy and 

 character has been to establish the fact that great attainments 

 are not realised independently of suitable antecedents. This 

 is the great law of heredity, and with it we associate, as a 

 general conclusion, that intellectual and moral greatness 

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