Note:

Published as a 7-part serial January to August 1868 in London Society: An illustrated magazine of light and amusing literature for the hours of relaxation #73-78 and #80; beginning vol 13, issue 73, page 3-12 (viewed at HathiTrust); unillustrated. Every serial part contains one or two chapters, and some parts including that for June do not make clear that there is more to follow. The book published in mid-June contains two further chapters; those constitute the last serial part, in the August issue, which ends as described below.

• "Contemplating my companion" by A. Forestier, frontispiece of the undated Ward, Lock edition (viewed at HathiTrust)
• "Bones and I", a long unsigned review in The Saturday Review 25.661 (1868-06-27) p860-61, suggests that it is in effect a collection of mildly sentimental essays. Well done. "Only the title and the introduction awake the expectation of something more highly flavoured than the book actually turns out to be."

Synopsis: A London gentleman lives in a flat behind a hospital with a stay-at-home live human skeleton, "Bones". They converse, and the book is a record of their conversations. More than one chapter might end the book well enough, simply by locating the last paragraph there: "Perhaps I have over-aired him lately; but it seems to me that Bones is a good deal 'above himself'. If I can only get him back into the cupboard, I have more than half a mind to lock him up for good and all."