INTRODUCTION. 
Xlll 
The extent of the collection, in each of the families of 
Mammalia, compared with those of the Museum of the 
Zoological Society of London, and of the Senkenbergian 
Society at Frankfort, (the only two large collections of 
which, as far as I am aware, complete catalogues have 
been published,) may be deduced from the following 
statement. The numbers in the two latter columns of 
the Table are derived from Mr. Waterhouse’s Catalogue 
of the Mammalia in the Museum of the Zoological So- 
ciety, and its Supplement, published just before the pack- 
ing up of that collection in store in 1839, and from Dr. 
Ruppell’s Catalogue of the Mammalia in the Museum of 
the Senkenbergian Society, published in the summer of 
1842. It is much to be regretted that there are no 
means of continuing the comparison with reference to 
the Museums of Paris, Leyden, Berlin, Vienna, or Brus- 
sels. No catalogue, or even estimate of the contents of 
any of those collections, having, to my knowledge, been 
given to the world. It is almost unnecessary to add, 
that such a comparison as that now given cannot be at 
all points perfectly correct: Mr. Waterhouse or Dr. 
Riippell occasionally regarding as species what in the 
present Catalogue are considered varieties, and the re- 
verse. But this difference of opinion will be found to 
have very little influence on the general results. 
