A General Guide (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895. Excerpt: ... 22 BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM AKD ITS COiTTENTS. In following this short account of the contents of the various sections of the building, the visitor must bear in mind that the principal front faces the south, and that therefore on entering the great hall he will be looking due north, with the east on his right, and the west on his left hand. The Central Hall. IaU-In the centre of the entrance hall is placed a specimen of the bony framework of one of the most colossal of animals, for which space cannot at present be found in its proper o locality--the Cetacean gallery. It is the skeleton of the Cachalot, or Sperm-whale (Physeter macrocephalus), prepared from an animal cast ashore near Thurso, on the north coast of Scotland, in July, 1863, on the estate of Capt. D. Macdonald, E.E., by whom it was presented to the Museum. The Sperm-whale is the principal source of supply of the sperm oil and spermaceti of commerce. The former is obtained by boiling the fat or blubber lying beneath the skin over the whole body; the latter, in a liquid state at the ordinary temperature of the living animal, is contained in cells which fill the immense cavity on the top of the skull. It feeds chiefly on Cephalopods (squid and cuttlefish), and also fish, and is widely distributed throughout the warm and temperate regions of both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The skeleton is that of a full-grown animal. It measures fifty feet in length, but wants three of the vertebrae from the end of the tail. In order to render this skeleton more instructive, and to bring it into relation with the elementary specimens of osteology in the adjoining bay (So. I., west side), the names of the principal parts have been attached to them. This will enable ...