NATURAL SCIENCE. 



SPECIAL ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT TO 



NO. 30, AUGUST, 1894. 



Taxidermy as a Fine Art. 



IF any doubt the value of that connection between science and art 

 to which we have referred on p. go, then a glance at the fascinating 

 Report by Dr. Shufeldt, which we reviewed in our July number 

 (pp. 58-60), would convince them of their error, at least so far as 

 Taxidermy is concerned. Dr. Shufeldt's plea is throughout for a 

 more artistic rendering of the stuffed and modelled animals and 

 groups in our museums ; and when we inquire how this desirable 

 result is to be attained, we find that it is solely by holding the mirror 

 up to Nature herself. That this has not always been done is proved, 

 if proof be needed, by several of the illustrations to the Report ; 

 while that it can be done by those with a wide knowledge of nature, 

 artistic feeling, and command of technique, is sufficiently evidenced 

 by many other of the beautiful plates in the book. Through the 

 kindness of Dr. Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, we are now enabled to present our readers with a selection 

 from these plates, to many of which we alluded in our review. 



The specimen of Octopus vulgaris (PL I.) is a gelatine cast taken 

 from a plaster mould, and then faithfully coloured according to nature. 

 The mould was made, as is usual in these cases, not from the animal 

 itself, but from a carefully prepared model, which in this instance was 

 based on a figure by Verany, " It is hard," says Dr. Shufeldt, "to 

 realise what a perfect representation one of these finished gelatine casts 

 gives of the living animal ; and, the cast being perfectly pliable, it still 

 further enhances the resemblance to the original." 



The Skate, Raia erinacea (PI. II.), is a plaster cast taken from the 

 animal, and coloured, the eyes and minor appendages being added 

 after the cast is made. Some such process as this is the only one by 

 which the large cartilaginous fishes can be reproduced with any 

 marked fidelity to nature and fit for a first-class museum. " Rays," 



