INTRODUCTION. 



produced who will fulfil the objects of their profession with 

 honour to themselves and advantage to their country. Would 

 any person expect to arrive at eminence as a sculptor if he 

 were unacquainted with the established preliminaries of his 

 art, namely, drawing 1 and anatomy ? The thing is so self-evi- 

 dent, that I am only surprised it has not long ago been acted 

 upon. Upwards of twelve years have elapsed since I pointed 

 out these facts to the Professor of Natural History in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh, but things continue as they were before 

 that time. 



Although these observations apply with their full force 

 to the preservation of the MAMMALIA, or Quadrupeds, 

 they are equally applicable to Birds and Fishes. It is quite 

 true, that defects in ill-stuffed birds are not so obvious as in 

 quadrupeds, because the feathers assist in a great measure to 

 conceal such deformities ; and in fishes, imperfections are also 

 less observable, owing to the smooth and unmarked appearance 

 of their external surface, from the circumstance of their bones 

 being principally small towards their outside, and the larger 

 bones being deeply concealed under the muscles. 



I am happy to find that the ingenious Mr Waterton agrees 

 with me on this important subject. " Were you," says he, " to 

 pay as much attention to birds as the sculptor does to the hu- 

 man frame, you would immediately see, on entering a museum, 

 that the specimens are not well done. 



" This remark will not be thought severe, when you reflect, 

 that that which was once alive, lias probably been stretched, 

 stuffed, stiffened, and wired, by the hand of a common clown. 

 Consider, likewise, how the plumage must have been disordered 

 by too much stretching or drying, and, perhaps, sullied, or at 

 least deranged, by the pressure of a coarse and heavy hand, 

 plumage which, ere life had fled within it, was accustomed to 

 by touched by nothing rougher than the dew of heaven, and 

 the pure and gentle breath of air. 



" In dissecting, three things are necessary to insure success, 

 viz., a penknife, a hand not coarse or clumsy, and practice. 

 The first will furnish you with the means, and the second will 

 enable you to dissect, and the third will cause you to dissect 

 well. These may be called the mere mechanical requisites. 



" In stuffing you require cotton, a needle and thread, a little 



