The Portland daily press., 1866-09-29

Professor Henry A{Wkrd ;of RoHhestsr5N.
Y, bsssssht te lHatural Histotayt Society IF
tbs City a!coaSSf the nlustrsted Catalogue ef
CASTS of Foss1s PREPARED, and for Me by him
Self Prof Wards w6fk Avaluabisseno
merit more than a passing notice, for nothing |
has ever been done in this country on SO grand
a soa4e to facilitate instruction in the beautiful
science of Paleontology to which he is so ear
nestly devoted. The, series consists OF lZoo
casts in plaster, representing the most remark
able forms of extinct animals, hshes, shehs'
sponges. &c. Many of the specimens OF WHICH
they are fac-similes are very rare, ana no hu-
scum could ever hope to obtain them; some
are unique, and form the peculiar and jealousy
\ guarded treasures of the great coilecno"s OF
the Old World. The casts are carefully taken
and coiored in exact imitation Of the originals,
4 20 that nothing but microscopic examination
| will detect the counterfeit. For very rnoder-
ate sum, the Seminary, Academy or College
may obtain the means5f illustrating, as moth
fng but appeals to the eye of the student can
do, the strange, wild world of ages ago which
Geology reveals.
Perhaps the most striking of all Professor
Wards models is the gigantic copy of the skel-
eton of the Megatherium Cuvieri The cast
of this consists of 175 different bones, properly
Joined together. The skeleton is II it. 9 in.
long and #. high. There were indeed "giants
on the earth" when these bones were clothed
with flesh, for the largest living animal OF the
Sloth family to which this monster belonged,
does not exceed two feet in length. The series
contains also q cast of the great fossil Arma-
dillo, whose shell alone weighed 1000 pounds
The fossil Rhinoceros, Dinotherium, ELEPHANT
Mastodon, with the uncouth lizards OF the
WealdenAnd Lias strata, such as the Iguano-
don, Plesiosaurus, Megalosaurus, Pterodactyie
&C., are also copied. The Plesiosaurus skele-
ton ION slab) measures % #. in. by IL it. 9
in There are about 900 casts of the Fishes,
Trilobites, Mollusks, Crustaceans, Echinoderms
&c, including 200 enlarged models of the tiny
and crystalline Foraminifera, minute shells
found in the ooze of the sea.
One of the grand questions of the present
century has been the antiquity of Man as de-
duced form the fossil contents of the latest ge-
illogical deposits The Ward series contains
material for a fine understanding of this dis
cussion. The Neanderthal skull and others
form the bone caverns, the Gaudaloupe skele-
ton, with the remains of supposed contempt
iaheouS quaurupedS form a very interesting
suite of casts. Scarcely less attractive are the
slabs which reproduce to our eye the bird
tracks, ripple-marks and rain-drops of the
connecticut valley. A collection of miscella-
neous casts is appended-the model Of whale,
the most famous gold and platinum nuggets
ever discovered, celebrated meteoric stones,
the Rosetta Stone of Egypt, and hat is even
more valuable, relief maps of Mont Blanc, We
suvius, Etna, &c. The mass of material thus
presented to the teachers or professors hands
is immense, and the man who has given his
time and toll by travels through the Eastern
and Western continents, to bring to our view
this universe of wonders, merits no ordinary
praise.
1t is scarcely to be expected that our own So
ciety of Natural History crippled as it is for the
! time by its second disaster, can at present do
| anything to procure and present to the eyes of
/ the public any of these remarkable works of
art. But there are institutions of learning in
, the State which could do themselves and the
, community great good by embodying among
their means of instruction the casts of Prof
Ward. Let us hope that Maine WIN not refuse
to encourage this development of American
science. E.. B.