4 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 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 MammMatia, 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 ina 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. 
Iam 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, has 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 fied 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 yeu to dissect 
well. These may be called the mere mechanical requisites. 
“In stuffing you require cotton, a needle and thread, a little 
