534 MUSEUMS. 



operation ; he could not call to mind one idea which would enable 

 him to restore the protuberance which is seen over the eye, or to give 

 boldness to the front, or expression to the lips, or beauty to the 

 cheeks, or, in fine, symmetry to the whole. He could produce 

 nothing beyond a mere dried specimen, shrunk too much in this 

 part, or too bloated in that a mummy, a distortion, a hideous 

 spectacle, a failure in every sense of the word. 



But how comes it, that such clever and enterprising men, as those 

 generally are who have the appointment of working-curators to 

 museums, should never yet have discovered the true cause which 

 has occasioned all their errors and mistakes ? The answer is brief 

 and easy. They have not gone the right way to work in their attempts 

 to overcome the difficulties which stared them in the face. They 

 seem not to have reflected sufficiently that the quadruped, before 

 they skinned it, was of beautiful form, and of just proportions, and 

 had that in its outward appearance which pleased the eye of every 

 beholder ; but that no sooner had they taken the skin off, than it lost 

 its beauty, and these fine proportions; and that the parts, which still 

 in some measure retained the appearance they had in life, would, 

 in the course of a short time, contract and dry in, and put on a 

 very shrivelled and mummy-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 that the 

 skins wanted support, they have placed inside of them a hard body 

 of straw, or of tow, or sometimes of wood, by way of a solid found- 

 ation, 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 



