See are 
302 MUSEUMS. 
like appearance. Add to this that, in stuffing their 
animals, they have tried to effect by despatch what 
could only be done by a very slow process. 
Thus, in order to prevent the skins from becoming 
putrid, especially in hot climates, it has always 
been a main object with these operators to get the 
skins dried as soon as possible. Again, finding tha* 
. the skins wanted support, they have placed insid« 
of them a hard body of straw, or of tow, or some- 
times of wood, by way of a solid foundation, into 
which they might fix their wires. Such a process 
must effectually destroy every chance of success. 
The nose, and lips, and ears, &c., of the specimen 
may\look well for a few days after the operation ; but, 
in the course of time, they will become so hideous, 
that every connoisseur will turn from them in 
disgust. 
These remarks are just. Let us go and examine 
a stuffed monkey, for example, in any museum we 
choose. See! its once pouting lips are shrunk to 
parchment ; its artificial eyes are starting from the 
sockets; its ears seem like the withered leaf of 
autumn ; and its paws are quite gone to skin and 
hone. It is what it ought not to be: it is the product 
of a bad system, which ought to be exploded in 
these days of research and improvement. But how 
is this defective system to be improved, so that e 
specimen may be produced, which shall be right in 
all its parts, durable as the table on which it is placed, 
safe from the depredations of the moth, and not 
liable to injury when exposed to damp? To effect 
this, two things are indispensably necessary. The 
