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Show 1867.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE RHINOCEROTIDAE. 1031 CffiLODONTA PALLASII. Rhinoceros, Pallas, Acta Acad. Petrop. 1777, ii. 210, t. 9 ; Nov. Com. Petrop. xiii. 4 47, t. 9, 10. Rhinoceros tichorinus, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. ii. 64, t. 7. f. 1 (skull), t. 8, 9, 1 1, 14 (bones) ; Blainv. Osteogr. t. 13 (from Pallas). R. pallasii, Desm. M a m . 402. R. antiquitatis, Blainv. Rhinoceros de Siberie, Cuv. Ann. Mus. xii. 19, t. 1, 3, 4. Hab. Siberia, in the ice ; Fossil, Himalaya &c. The following measurements are given in inches and lines, taken by a pair of callipers; so they are a straight line (or chord) from point to point indicated, and not a line over or along the surface. I believe they are sufficient for all zoological purposes ; but it is the fashion of some zoologists and comparative anatomists to give measurements with three, and sometimes even four places of decimals, this arising from their taking a metre, about 39 inches, for the unit, which requires one decimal place for any measured or part of a measured inch or space under 39 inches, two for any similar measurement under 4 inches, and three for any under 5 lines. Others, to avoid this evil, write of 20 or 130 mm. (millimetres) ; but this is as inconvenient, as the latter unit is as much too small as the other is too large. On pointing out this evil to a naturalist, who has published long tables with such admeasurements, he replied, did it not look very * scientific ? I fear, unfortunately, there is a desire to mystify general readers, and a quackery in natural history as in other less ennobling studies. I have never yet met with a naturalist, even German or French, that could show m e the size of a bone marked in the French metrical system ; few cannot do this with considerable accuracy when marked in inches or feet. The having a measurement of well-known different lengths, as yards, feet, inches, or lines, which bear a relation to some parts of our own bodies, is a great advantage not found in the metrical system. ^ |