SCIENTIFIC TAXIDERMY FOR MUSEUMS. 



(BASED ON A STUDY OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT COLLEC- 

 TIONS. ) 



By R. W. Shufeldt. M. D. 



in a valued communication, dated January 16, 1<S98, the present 

 writer was honored by a request from the United States National 

 Museum to furnish to it a paper upon what may briefly be termed 

 "scientific taxidermy" in its widest sense. My attention was espe- 

 cially invited to the progress that had been made in the art of taxi- 

 dermy, as exemplified on the part of the various methods used in the 

 preparation of, and the modes of mounting - resorted to, in the case 

 of all kinds of animals for museum exhibition. It was proposed 

 that in a general way this study should review the field, in so far as 

 the collections contained in the IT. S. National Museum and Smith- 

 sonian Institution were concerned, from those times when specimens of 

 mounted animals were first being - made by those institutions to the day 

 when the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago per- 

 mitted people to see, in the varied groups and single examples of pre- 

 served animals from nearly every department in nature sent there, 

 what could be accomplished in such matters through the operations of 

 skilled moderns in the taxidermic art. What was expected of me was 

 further definitely defined, in the letter to which reference is made above, 

 in the following words : " We should like to have your unbiased opinion 

 of the different pieces and kinds of work, whether favorable or unfavor- 

 able, and should be glad to have you indicate, so far as you feel dis- 

 posed to do so, what lines of work, in your opinion, promise the best 

 results if carried further, and what you think should be abandoned." 

 This injunction, when faithfully performed in the ease of any art what 

 soever, is the only proper test of our progress in it. and it is through 

 comparison alone of early accomplishments, work recently performed, 

 and what is being done in the particular line at the moment, that we 

 can inform ourselves precisely where we stand. Very soon it became 

 possible for me to direct my attention to this matter, and a preliminary 

 overlook of the field convinced me that my chief duty lay in making 

 just criticism of the results attained on the part of the artist in tax- 

 idermy, rather than an enumeration and description of all the details of 

 H. Mis. 1 11, pt. 2 24 369 



