May 9, 1878] 



NATURE 



Z7 



what appears to me to constitute the value of the volume 

 in question. We have but too frequently, though very 

 naturally, figured and described the more definable types, 

 the more obscure and intermediate forms being left for a 

 further consideration, which sometimes never comes ! 

 Yet these obscure examples often teach most important 

 truths. Had all writers paid due attention to such inter- 

 mediate varieties, the science of Palaeo-Phytology would 

 have been less afflicted with premature ''classifications " 

 than has been the case. Hence the spirited society that 

 has pubHshed these posthumous Huttonian memorials is 

 entitled to the thanks of all Palceontologists. 



W. C. Williamson 



TAXIDERMY 



Practical Taxidermy; a Mamcal of Instruction to the 

 Amateur in Collectings Preserving, and Setting up 

 Natural History Specimens of all Kinds. By Montagu 

 Browne. (London: Bazaar Office, 32, We llington 

 Street, Strand. No date.) 



ACCORDING to the dictum uttered, or supposed to 

 have been uttered, by one of our leading ornitho- 

 logists, " The worst use you can make of a bird is to 

 stuff it," and in nineteen cases out of twenty this saying 

 is true, for, from a real naturalist' s point of view, com- 

 paratively little can be got from the stuffed and mounted 

 specimen not only of a bird but of almost any other 

 animal. Nevertheless, there is a very large class of 

 persons who are not real naturalists, and to them the 

 skin of a beast, bird, reptile, or fish, duly prepared and 

 embellished with glass eyes, stuck up with wire through 

 its leo-s in a glazed box, and surrounded by imitation foliage, 

 dried and dyed herbage, is a joy for ever, though perhaps 

 not even to them a thing of beauty. For this large class the 

 present book is intended, and it will probably attain its 

 object, notwithstanding that how far the animal stuffer's 

 trade is to be learned from any book without actual de- 

 monstration seems to be questionable. The author's 

 practical knowledge of his business is, we doubt not, con- 

 siderable, and it would have been better had he let alone 

 some of the matters not really relating to it upon 

 which he descants. His very first sentence tells us that 

 taxidermy " is derived from two Greek words, a literal 

 translation of which would signify the 'skin art'" — a 

 statement which beats the time-honoured explanation of 

 Hippopotamus, from hippos, a river, and potamos, a 

 horse, inasmuch as taris has as little to do with art as 

 with the Queen's taxes — and then goes on to inform us, 

 from Herodotus, the Pemiy Cyclopcedia, and other trust- 

 worthy authorities, how the Egyptians made mummies, 

 which is all as delightful as so ghastly a subject can be, 

 but is certainly somewhat superfluous as " Instruction to 

 the Amateur" in "preserving and setting up Natural 

 History Specimens." Hardly less unnecessary is 

 Chapter II. devoted to "Trapping and Decoying Birds 

 and Animals," whereby we may remark that the author 

 is of that persuasion which denies the animal nature of 

 birds. But we may pardon him this and other offences 

 for what he says (pp. 14, 15) against the needless 

 destruction of the rarer "birds and animals," and 

 thence to Chapter X. is much more to the purpose. We 

 are sorry to see, however, that he is addicted to the usual 



taxidermist's mannerisms, most of which are fatal to 

 good and artistic mounting. Paint, for instance, however 

 thin, on bills and legs is an abomination. If colour is 

 required it ought to be supplied by subcutaneous injec- 

 tion, which in the majority of cases can be easily and 

 successfully done. Artificial twigs of wire and tow, 

 dusted over with powdered lichens and the like, are 

 nearly as objectionable as the external application of 

 paint. As regards the stuffing of heads of large mammals 

 the instructions given ara really good, but we suspect 

 that a satisfactory result cannot be obtained without far 

 more experience and closer study of nature than the 

 author Avould have us think necessary. We must re- 

 proach him, moreover, for not giving a hint to the learner 

 as to the best mode of preparing the "skin" of a bird 

 so as to prevent its head from breaking off. This is 

 done by inserting a long lock of cotton-wool of tow into 

 the cranium (from behind, of course) making it fast 

 there by tight packing, and then twisting the remainder 

 of the lock into a kind of loose cord, which does not 

 distend the skin of the neck, enables its length to be 

 adjusted as may be required, and finally affords a cohe- 

 rent and effectual support, whereas the ordinary mode of 

 ramming bit after bit of stuffing into the neck has exactly 

 the opposite tendency. 



Mr. Montagu Browne speaks with complacency of the 

 achievements of English "artists" in taxidermy; but it 

 seems as if his acquaintance with foreign works was 

 limited to the comical creatures from Wiirtemberg in the 

 old Exhibition of 1851. We venture to say that there is 

 hardly a museum on the Continent which has not its 

 specimens mounted in a style that no professional in 

 these islands can equal — certainly not surpass. When 

 we look at that really awful group of the boa and the 

 peccary, recently erected in the British Museum, we 

 blush for the handiwork and ignorance it displays. The 

 impression it gives is that the boa, being crammed 

 into a cylindrical form, is quite inflexible, and that the 

 peccary, though not a learned pig, is fully aware of the 

 fact, so, feeling sure that there is no chance of his 

 being crushed by his enemy, he rather likes the adventure 

 than not. 



The question of the use of arsenic in preparing skins 

 we cannot discuss at any length. Our author declares that 

 Tinece and Dermestce laugh it to scorn, even if they do 

 not, as he believes, like the Styrians, "fatten on it" 

 (p. 44). We shall only say that we prefer it, and know 

 of a case in which a collector in the tropics, having 

 exhausted his stock of the poison, was compelled to 

 prepare some of his specimens without it, which speci- 

 mens were some years afterwards attacked and greatly 

 injured by insects ; while others, obtained before his 

 store gave out, and duly arsenicated, remained unharmed, 

 though lying side by side in the cabinet with the speci- 

 mens that suffered. Arsenical soap, it is true, does not 

 keep either feathers or fur safe, simply because it cannot 

 be applied to them, but it certainly preserves the skin 

 according to our experience, and every travelling collector 

 should unquestionably use it. Corrosive sublimate is 

 effectual for a time, but the best preventive is a well- 

 fitting cabinet — care being taken that infected specimens 

 are never introduced to it. In conclusion let us caution 

 our readers not to be misled by the similarity of the 



