In the afternoon we visited the Theatrum Anatomicum, or as it is called here and as is also written up over the door, the Schola Anatomica. For what we in Germany name auditorium they call schola, for instance: they say schola theologica, medica, juridica, philosophica, &c., for our auditorium theologicum, &c. In reality it cannot be styled theatrum anat.anatomicum as there are no seats. It is merely a great hall in which objects of interest, which partly do not belong here at all, are hanging around the walls, as, for example, works of art and so on. It could rather be called natural history museum or art gallery. Borrichius in Epist. ad Barthol. Cent IV. Epist. XCII. p. 525, says with truth that it is not to be compared to the Leyden Theatrum Anatomicum, although there are many beautiful things to be found here. We noticed the following: — A disgusting big head or skull of a walrus with great long teeth. A strange abortion of a calf which had been carried by a cow for many years and at last saw the light of day thus malformed. Two small loaves from the siege of Oxford, now all wormeaten. In a case, all kinds of Indian and other articles of dress, amongst them those from Davis StreetStrait of which Benthem speaks, p. 327. Also many other trifles such as a pair of boots which belonged to Augustus King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. An Italian lock, that jealous husbands in Italy put on their wives, and such like. Several very large calculi of men and animals, amongst which was the one mentioned by Borrichius. It is said to weigh two pounds, but is not nearly so large as a child's head. It was found after her death in a woman from Woodstock, not far from here, and cut out. The great corn or clavus, of which Benthem treats on the above-mentioned page 327. It looks more like a big nail than a bunion or com. Dr. Plot mentions it in his Natural History of Oxfordshire. Further on is one of Queen Elizabeth's shoes without a heel. The lower jaw of a woman, which has a large growth like a walnut. She is said to have got this from severe tooth-ache. A cane or stick, hollow and filled inside with quicksilver, such as some of the traitors carried to kill Charles I. When the traitors were discovered, all the prisoners were found to have the same weapons. A petrified, or rather incrusted, skull even larger than the one we had seen in Cambridge, though the stone or material was not so firm as in that, and the cranium was no longer whole. A plaster of Paris cast of a human foot which in place of toes had only two knobs or excrescences. The junior Librarian, Tho. Hearne, a young man still and a scholar, who is industrious and highly cultured, is in charge of this Schola Anatomica and shows it to strangers, but in these matters he is such an ignoramus that he gave out that this cast was the natural foot itself.

Further we saw the skeleton of a pigmy, mentioned by Benthem, p. 327. This skeleton has very white, sharp teeth. One would take it for the skeleton of a monkey; it is not an ell high. Dr. Edward Tyson, [*] Dr. Edward Tyson sent in June 1700 a number of books to Dr. Hudson for the Bodleian Library. He asked Dr. Hudson to accept a copy of his book "Ourang Outang"; this book was in fact on the dissection of a chimpanzee. Hearne sets out a long letter written by Tyson. in his treatise, Orang Outang sive homo Sylvestris, in which he also treats de Pygmaeis makes mention of this. The Librarian insisted on his opinion that it was an old man, because it had all its teeth. But could it not be a child which had cut all its teeth? If it is an old man he must have been a very small dwarf : for that it was really a pygmy credat Judaeus Apella, non ego ...

Farther on we remarked a fine work of art, namely: Archimedes with a compass of ivory in his hand and beautifully cut—about as big as the palm of the hand. In a drawer below the table, all thrown together, lay all sorts of things in boxes and wrapped in paper and also some medals, which are not at all suitable for this place. Further several idols, such as Isis, etc. A little whale said to have been caught in the river near Gloucester. A terrifically big Indian bat, which, including the outspread wings, measures more than an ell. A monstrosity of a lamb with two bodies, eight feet, four ears but only one head. A bone of unheard of size, reported to have been found underground in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Benthem mentions it at the same place, p. 327, but he mistakes when he says it is the thigh-bone of a cow. For firstly the cow would be a giant, and secondly it is not a thigh-bone but the os femorale, and thirdly it is not two ells but as we measured it 3½ span and nearly two spans in thickness.

Also we saw a great urn, almost twice as big as the one Olearius makes such a fuss about in his Mausolaeum, which I saw at his house. This urn, as was stated on the label appended, was, "inventa juxta Sittingburne in agro Cantiano." It is also alleged: "Burtonus in annotationibus ad Antonini Itinerarium." Farther on we saw the sword or dagger with which James I is said to have knighted the "Sir Line" of beef. When he came from Scotland and found the great roast loin of beef, which he had never tasted before, so much to his liking, he asked what the name of this joint was. Receiving the answer: "Line beef," he drew his sword and as though dubbing a knight smote it three times with the weapon, saying: "This joint shall henceforth be deemed noble and be called Sir Line beef." If this is the same sword then for the sake of the royal jest, it is certainly well worthy of preservation. But such things are easily suspicious, as the wearing apparel and articles said to date from old times generally are. For instance: in Gotha, if I mistake not, they exhibit all the clothing and armour of Gustavus Adolphus. Although a note is appended on which it is stated that these are the gloves jerkin etc. of this king, some one of the same epoch ought really to be there too to take a solemn oath that they are genuine, and not just announced as such and presented here in order to receive honour and admiration.

More remarkable still was the Mappa Geographica of the kingdom of China drawn with the pen, which Dr. Bernard had had completed in that country at great expense to himself. It is at least four times as large as our ordinary maps. We also saw the bladder of a man which was easily a German ell long and which is said to bold at least four quarts. Furthermore several panels or paintings by one Fuller, which portray the muscles of the human body drawn from the life very well. Likewise the skeleton and stuffed skin of a woman who had had 18 husbands and was hanged because she had murdered 4 of them. The skin may with good reason be called tanned leather. Benthem makes mention of this skeleton also, p. 310, and says that it is kept in Collegio S. Johannis. Perhaps it was there at that time and only brought here later. He is also mistaken when he mentions only 17 husbands, as there were 18. On p. 327, he also speaks of a stuffed Moor being here. But this is absurd, as there is no such thing to be found in the place, unless he took a complete mummy for a Moor. From this it can be seen how badly one can err when a thing is only superficially observed. Further we saw a very large petrified fungus marinus and two large Spanish bamboos, or rather arundines or cannae, grown in India. One was thicker than an arm, the other somewhat thinner and much longer than the whole room, about 30 feet, hanging diagonally on the wall. Then there is the dried hand of a supposed siren. It is about half as long again as a human hand and more or less like one in appearance.

After this the Custos showed us the Devil's alphabet (as he innocently called it), since it is nothing more than a printed tablet with Indian characters. Further we were shown Joseph's coat; Monconys dans la suite de la seconde partie de ses voyages, p. 101, speaks of it, but names another place where he saw it. It is a coat made of leather and trimmed with all kinds of fur of different colours. Why it is so called, I cannot say; the Bible does not tell us that he wore such a one—for I suppose this is the Joseph intended. We also saw here the little cubus mentioned by Monconys on the same page. The block is fashioned out of a piece of oak, through the top of which a brass ring has been so skillfully passed that not only can it be turned completely round, but it shows no sign of the place where it has been soldered. This must, however, necessarily have been done, unless, when the tree was still young, the ring was inserted in a place where part of the tree had been torn away. The tree might then have grown over and round the ring so that in course of time they were able to fashion this cubus with half of the ring exposed, but how it was then loosened so as to revolve I do not know. Therefore I much doubt whether this method was employed and prefer to think that by some curious art at was soldered by means of a lamp without silver and the hole burnt in first by red-hot iron, after having been prepared by the compass. We also noticed the two great crocodiles of which Borricchius writes, as also the fine cranium overgrown with moss of which he likewise treats; further the Indian cow's tail, and also the cranium humanum with its quatuor tuberculi, which are all as Borricchius describes them. But generally speaking the specimens are in great confusion here, full of dust and soot, and there are many among them, as has been said above, and as is to be seen from this description, which do not belong at all to an anatomical museum, but would be much more suitable to an art gallery like the Ashmolean Museum. When a dissection takes place (which, as is universal in publicis lectionibus, scarcely ever happens) it is never here but, as the custos himself stated, in one of the other schools, possibly so as to prevent the collections here from being injured or even stolen.