NATURE 



433 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 



1898. 



MODERN TAXIDERMY. 



The Art of Taxidermy. By John Rowley. Pp. 



xi + 244 ; illustrated. (New York : Appleton and 



Co., 1898.) 

 ''PHAT improvements in taxidermical methods are 

 -L being carefully studied in the United States is 

 evident not only from the publication of the present 

 volume, but also from a paper recently communicated to 

 the "Report of the U.S. National Museum" by Prof. 

 R. W. Shufeldt, entitled " Taxidermical Methods in the 

 Leyden Museum, Holland." Both these may be ad- 

 vantageously studied together ; and the result of their 

 perusal will scarcely fail to convince the reader that the 

 art in question stands on a higher level, and is making 

 more decided progress there than is the case in this 

 country. One very striking feature in Mr. Rowley's 

 little volume is the absence of all reserve in com- 

 municating so-called trade secrets, and in laying bare all 

 his methods to public criticism. It is, as the author 

 well states, by such frankness alone that the art of the 

 taxidermist can be advanced ; and it is a matter .for con- 

 gratulation that on the other side of the Atlantic, at any 

 rate, the profession is being taken up by men of education 

 and genius who are above petty trade jealousies. One 

 difficulty in making a comparison between English and 

 American methods is owing to the fact that to all but 

 experts it is very difficult, in the absence of treatises like 

 the present, to ascertain the precise details of the modus 

 operandi in the former. 



Perhaps the greatest interest in Mr. Rowley's volume 

 centres round the chapters devoted to collecting speci- 

 mens and the mounting of the skins of the larger mam- 

 mals, since bird-stuffing, we venture to think, has already 

 attained a comparatively high grade in this country. 

 The remarks of our author in the fifth chapter indicate 

 the importance of having collectors attached to a museum 

 who shall themselves kill and flay the specimens whose 

 skins are intended for exhibition. We are told, for 

 instance, that the skins of small mammals prepared in 

 the manner now becoming so general for study purposes 

 are unsatisfactory for mounting, the hair sometimes 

 coming off during the soaking process. In regard to 

 larger mammals, the author may be allowed to speak 

 for himself. "It is always better," he writes, "if pos- 

 sible, to decide upon the attitude the specimen is to 

 assume when mounted before making the opening cuts, 

 and to make them where they will show the least. The 

 process by which the animal is to be mounted should 

 also be considered." 



Then again it is important that measurements and 

 photographs or sketches of the specimen should be taken 

 both before and after flaying, to be subsequently used in 

 the construction of the " manikin " upon which the skin 

 is finally to be mounted. In regard to the making of the 

 manikin, both Mr. Rowley and Prof. Shufeldt agree that 

 " it is simply impossible to get the correct form of a large 

 mammal by taking casts in plaster of its lifeless flayed 

 NO. 1506, VOL. 58] 



boi^y." And the former recommends the gradual working 

 up of the form of the animal upon a framework primarily 

 constructed of a centre board to which are affixed the 

 skull and limb-bones, or, when these are required for 

 other purposes, casts of the same. Here again the neces- 

 sity for a special collector is apparent, as in too many 

 cases skins intended for mounting are sent home with- 

 out the limb-bones ; while even when these are obtained 

 it is by no means certain that they, or replicas, will be used 

 in the mounting. To follow the details of Mr. Rowley's 

 method would obviously be out of place on the present 

 occasion, but it may be mentioned that when the centre 

 board has been cut into its proper shape, the general 

 form of the animal is obtained by fine wire netting 

 nailed along the top of the board and adjusted as nearly 

 as may be to the general contour of the body and upper 

 portions of the limbs, and tacked fast along the under- 

 side of the body-board. Upon the rude outline thus 

 obtained the details of muscular anatomy are worked up 

 in some soft material which can be apphed where neces- 

 sary. The employment of a bare clay or plaster manikin, 

 however carefully modelled, is deprecated, as being likely 

 to cause shrinkage owing to the abstraction of the last 

 remnants of natural moisture from the skin by the clay 

 or plaster. Whatever may be the case in the American 

 institutions, we have great doubts whether this objection 

 would have any weight in London, where the dry atmo- 

 sphere maintained during winter in the Natural History 

 Museum renders shrinkage one of the great difficulties 

 to be contended against. 



Another point on which the author lays great stress is 

 the importance of shaving down the skins of " pachy- 

 dermatous " mammals from the inside until they attain a 

 degree of tenuity per^jiitting of their being readily worked 

 and moulded to the required form. As an instance of 

 the e.Ktent to which he carries the reducing process, it 

 may be mentioned that the skin of a rhinoceros weighing 

 two hundred and seventy pounds when first removed 

 from the body was shaved down until it weighed only 

 twenty-seven pounds, inclusive of the hoofs. 



With regard to reptiles and fish, Mr. Rowley recom- 

 mends the making of coloured casts to replace mounted 

 skins in museums in a large number of instances, 

 especially among lizards and snakes. Wherever the 

 pattern on a snake's skin is of an unusually complicated 

 type it is, however, considered preferable to make a cast 

 of the flayed body, upon which the prepared skin should 

 be stretched, and the original coloration restored by 

 careful painting. The few American coloured casts of 

 lizards and snakes now exhibited in the Natural History 

 Museum affijrd striking testimony as to the excellence of 

 the first method. 



That the appearance of Mr. Rowley's excellent little 

 volume will give a fresh impetus to the study of the taxi- 

 dermical art in this country must be the earnest wish of 

 all interested in our museums as institutions for the dis- 

 play of the various forms of animals in the most life-like 

 attitudes attainable. At the present day the matter is of 

 even more urgent importance than might at first sight 

 seem to be the case, since there is only too much reason 

 to fear that many of the larger mammals recently set up 

 in our museums will be the last of their kind obtainable 



