VI HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



art. A book by H. T. Race, in the Danish, published in 1842, contains 

 old methods of mounting birds and mammals, in which the methods 

 of preservation are not at all reliable. A little work of twenty-nine 

 pages, by S. H, Sylvester, published in this country in 1865, is a 

 most practical work as far as it goes. The instructions are very concise, 

 but clear and of the most practical kind. Those given are only for birds 

 and small quadrupeds. A work by Nathaniel Whitlock, appeared in 

 London in 1831, and gives some very good instruction in the " Skinning 

 and Mounting of Birds, Beasts and Fishes." It makes little difference, 

 however, what methods a man employs if, by their means, he attain in a 

 satisfactory manner the ends in view ; but of all the above mentioned 

 works, Martin seems to be the only author who has a proper knowledge 

 of the uses of clay in taxidermy. 



In fact, it is difficult to comprehend how the old taxidermists man- 

 aged to make the heads and faces of large, and also some of the smaller 

 mammals, look natural without its use or something equivalent to it. 

 It would be difficult, indeed, without something of a plastic nature, to 

 reproduce the exact character of the lips and faces of dogs and larger 

 mammals, the faces and fingers of monkeys, etc. 



It is true that Naumann in 1815 advocated the use of clay in birds 

 by making a stout wire frame, which he filled with soft clay and 

 allowed it to dry, thus producing a piece of work of great weight. 



The proper uses of clay in our art are well known at the present 

 day. It can be moulded into any shape desired, and will forever retain 

 the form given it, and an experienced hand by its use can reproduce to 

 a nicety ail the wrinkles, hollows and elevations that are characteristic in 

 the expressions of any animal. This part of the art requires the del- 

 icate touch which characterizes the hand of the true sculptor when 

 the image in his brain is first created in clay. In fact, he who would 

 attain a high standard in the advanced branches of taxidermy must be 

 in one sense of the word a sculptor. In the work published in 1840 

 by William Swainson, and also in that of Capt. Thomas Brown, 

 there appears not one word on the value of clay in taxidermy. Its uses 

 then in our art may be considered of comparatively recent date. My 

 venerable preceptor. Dr. Theodore Jasper, has always employed it in 

 modeling mammals. His expeiience in the art extends over a period 

 of more than fifty years. The use of clay were undoubtedly known 

 in Brown's and Swainson's time, but it is a well known fact that many 

 methods in taxidermy, like the mixing of metals by the alchemists 

 of old, were held secret by their discoverers, which prevented them 

 from becoming generally known. 



