372 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



to move in the matter, and several works were published, notably those by E. Don- 

 ovan,* YV. Swainson,t Capt. Thomas Brown, t and others. These, works, however, 

 are now inadequate, and since the Great Exhibition of 1851, when the Germans and 

 French taught British taxidermists the rudiments of scientific treatment of natural 

 objects, several works have appeared upon the subject from the pens of American 

 and English authors, such as J. H. Batty,§R. Ward,|| and Montagu Browne. 51 



That the art is recent was also held by Dr. Holder, who, in an able 

 address given before the Society of American Taxidermists, said that 

 the— 



First authentic examples in this comparatively new art with which we are fa miliar 

 are those produced through the patronage of the Prince Maximilian, of Nieu "Wied, 

 Germany. This distinguished naturalist had spent several years in exploring the 

 bird region of "North and South America. Equipped with every needful r.ppliance 

 for successful research, he included in the personnel of his staff a practical taxider- 

 mist, and the numerous species of American birds and mammals, embracing many 

 types of great value, testify to the thorough exploration which the Prince accom- 

 plished in these regions. It was the good fortune of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History to come into possession of the entire collection of natural objects which 

 formed the well-known museum of this naturalist, and thus, through tins collection, 

 we have representations of the earliest period of the art. 



Among the numerous examples contained in the Maximilian collection are a num- 

 ber that yet hear the original label in the handwriting of the Prince. The frequent 

 occurrence of Meiner Reiser (my journey), accompanied by dates from 1812 upwards, 

 a period comprising a full three score years and ten, is recorded testimony of great 

 historical value. Unscathed as those specimens are by museum pestB, they present 

 a most satisfactory evidence of the reliability of arsenical treatment as a means of 

 perpetuation well nigh indefinite. How much earlier the art was practiced we have 

 no detinite knowledge. The numerous stuffed skins of reptiles, or rather mummies, 

 found in Egyptian tombs naturally claim our notice as perhaps the earliest exam- 

 ples.** 



Extending over a very considerable period of duration we next find 

 the art of taxidermy passing through a stage of its development, of 

 which no end of examples quite parallel with it might be cited from 



* Instructions tor Collecting and Preserving Various Subjects of Natural History, 

 London, 1794. 



tThe Naturalist's Guide for Collecting and Preserving Subjects of Natural History 

 and Botany, London, 1822. 



i Taxidermist's Manual, Glascow, 1833. 



§ Practical Taxidermy and Home Decoration, New York, 1880. 



|| Sportsman's Handbook of Practical Collecting and Preserving, London, 1880. 



5j Practical Taxidermy, London, 1879, second edition, 1884; also, article Taxidermy, 

 Encycl. Brit., ninth edition, vol. xxm, p. 89, from which the above quotation is 

 made. 



** J. B. Holder, I >r. Third Annual Report of the Society of American Taxidermists, 

 Washington, 1884, p. 40. In this connection it is well worthy of notice that in the 

 same report Mr. L. M. McCormick (then of the U. S. National Museum) presents us 

 with a most valuable and useful Bibliography of Taxidermy (pp. 91-112), wherein 

 the earliest work cited on the art is that of Johann Daniel Geire, which consists of 

 merely two pages from the Miscell. Acad. Nat. Curios, entitled " De vernice ad con- 

 servanda insecta et aninialia," being published December 2, 1689. Nothing of any 

 importance, however, appearing between that date and the well known work of 

 Ferchault de Reaum, which was given to the world in 1748. 



