Page:A descriptive catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum.djvu/14

 VI INTRODUCTION.

hundred and four ; and of these, seven hundred and seven, with one or two exceptions, are separately displayed in glass jars. The rest, after being numbered and classified, are pre- served together in large glass jars, from which they can be removed for study or demonstration.* Some of the dry prepara- tions are also individually preserved under glass or in jars, for security when they are handled, and to make them more secure, also, than they can be when in the glazed cases alone ; and, for the same reason, many, if not most, of the arterial preparations are mounted. Of the artistic specimens, there are two hundred and sixty-eight models by Thibert, and sixty- seven by Auzoux, of Paris. The casts in plaster amount to five hundred and seventy ; but these include the phrenological col- lection, of which the number has been given above ; twenty-one of the casts that were taken from recent specimens being colored somewhat after nature. There are also sixty photographs, and one hundred and three other specimens, including drawings, daguerreotypes, wax models, etc. As there are many dried specimens that are preserved, though essentially similar, so there are many others of great interest and of common occur- rence, that are not generally preserved, except in regard to their external form, to the locality in which they are found, or their clinical history, inasmuch as their appearances are en- tirely changed by any mode of preservation that is known.

A descriptive catalogue is essential in an anatomical muse- um ; and one has been kept, in which the specimens that were given by Dr. Warren, and all that have since been added, have been entered as they were received. Many of them are simply enumerated ; but the descriptions are often much detailed, though references are made, by volume and page, to the hospi- tal records, and to the Medical Journal ; it being understood that the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal are referred to, unless otherwise expressed. Lengthy as the descriptions sometimes are, how- ever, they are almost always condensed from the original reports ; and the liberty has always been taken of correcting errors, whenever such were known to exist. In the printed catalogue of Thibert's models many appearances are recorded that are not shown, and they are consequently not referred to. The donor's name, as a rule, is always given, whatever may be


 * Designated by a mark (.) under the number.

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