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 th? 1 

 the skins wanted support, they have placed insidt 

 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 

 bone. 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 s 

 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, 



