496 PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION 



them together, and forms the commerce of the world. The 

 effects of soil, climate, or food on these, are exhibited in the pro- 

 ductions of the torrid, the temperate, and the frigid zones, in 

 animals or plants common to all ; and the geographical range of 

 organized bodies in general is brought within the reach of ob- 

 servation and comparison. In examining productions of diffe- 

 rent countries, there is something besides which excites general 

 curiosity in no ordinary degree. The terror of the forests, 

 the lion, the tiger, the rattlesnake, the gigantic and the mi- 

 nute in animal forms all that is dreaded for ferocity or mag- 

 nified for the danger of their approach when living and in their 

 native haunts, are here innocuous ; and, however much the 

 effect may be lost by contemplating such animals without the 

 power to hurt, yet curiosity is gratified in beholding the iden- 

 tical beings, relations connected with which have so powerfully 

 increased the interest of the traveller's narrative. 



Unfortunately for the perpetuity of such collections, however, 

 the resources of man have proved but a feeble barrier against the 

 universal law of decay, which reduces all organized bodies to their 

 original elements ; and though care may for a while arrest 

 the progress of decomposition, yet it is found that even in the 

 best regulated Museums many portions become useless or ulti- 

 mately disappear. The elements of air, heat, and moisture, though 

 no other causes operated, gradually but infallibly destroy the 

 finest specimens ; and when to these are conjoined the ravages 

 of thousands of minute animals which find their food in these pre- 

 parations, human care proves but of limited avail in counteract- 

 ing the effect of these natural causes. Hence a museum, un- 

 less constantly kept up by the addition of new specimens, is gra- 

 dually falling away, in so far at least as regards most of the or- 

 ganized bodies of which its parts are composed; and hence the 

 disappearance of collections once celebrated for their riches in 

 animal remains. 



By proper and incessant care, however, even the most perish- 

 able objects of a Museum may be preserved for a considerable 

 length of time ; and as the causes of destruction are investigat- 

 ed counteracting agents may be discovered, in so far at least as 

 to preserve for a long period the acquisitions of science in animal 

 structures. 



Next to Museums good Figures of the objects are important 



