NA TURE 



[August 6. 1896 



we believe, of the curator himself. A work, therefore, on 

 the subject in which he is an expert deserves attention. 

 Taken as a whole, we may at once say, that its careful 

 perusal will well repay the practical taxidermist and 

 modeller, for he will find the book to be a \ery detailed 

 guide to the more important methods of reproducing 

 animals and plants for exhibition purposes. Curators of 

 museums, even though they are neither taxidermists nor 

 modellers, will derive many excellent suggestions from its 

 pages. 



The object of the work, the author informs us, is to 

 pave the way for the " happy combination " of qualities 

 which he thinks the taxidermist should possess. " The 

 future and hope of taxidermy will be,' he says, "the 

 welding of the educated artist, designer, modeller, 

 sculptor, biologist and naturalist ; and the two last are 

 by no means synonymous terms, as some might suppose. 

 VVhen this happens — and there is no reason why all these 



various attitudes, and whichever of these he desires to 

 reproduce he will ha\e noted in his preliminary study of 

 his subject. He has but to copy faithfully — neither to 

 create, nor to use the painter's "poetic inspirations.' 



Following a short account of the origin and progress 

 of taxidermy, the succeeding seven chapters (some 290 

 pages) deal with the skinning and setting up of verte- 

 brates, and the preserving of invertebrates, by various 

 methods : and also their reproduction by casting and 

 modelling in paper, glue, &c. On these subjects Mr. 

 Browne writes with undoubted authority and wide ex- 

 perience, and his instructions and descriptions are, there- 

 fore, of the greatest value. Besides the processes and 

 methods long known and widely practised, the author 

 claims to describe "methods of taxidermy and modelling 

 not yet published, most of which are indeed absolutely 

 novel, and at present confined to the Leicester Museum" ; 

 specially noteworthy among them is the mounting of the 



P.iper of the Headless Body of a Tig<; 



attributes should not be combined in one individual — 

 taxidermy will become an exact science relie\ed as paint- 

 ing is at present by poetic inspirations." In this opinion 

 Mr. Browne but supports what Dr. Shufeldt, whom he 

 quotes, has written on the subject of the taxidermist's 

 training. Such a concatenation of qualities in one person 

 will, we fear, remain a dream of the future. Life is not 

 long enough for one individual to master a series of pro- 

 fessions each arduous enough in itself for most men. 

 Indeed, we hardly desire such a "professor" of many 

 callings. Knowledge is ne\er useless, but in our opinion 

 ■it appears unnecessary to insist that the taxidermist of 

 the future shall possess a scientific training in biology, or 

 should know more anatomy and osteology than may be 

 gained in his apprenticeship, and by \ery careful observa- 

 tion of the bodies of the animals he has to deal with; for he 

 lias to reproduce only the external surfaces as affected by 



NO. 1397, VOL. 54] 



skin, which is fully described, upon a model of the body 

 in paper, a process which, though tedious and demanding 

 much labour and care, will probably prove to be a great 

 improvement on that involving a " mannikin." An illus- 

 tration of a model in paper of a headless tiger, on which 

 the skin is to be fitted, is, through the courtesy of the 

 publishers, reproduced here (Fig. i). 



We are surprised to observe that Mr. Browne strongly 

 decries the use of " arsenical and mercurial [corrosive sub- 

 limate] soap," as being very ineflicient and too dangerous 

 for use, and recommends in its place "a non-poisonous 

 preservative soap" (of chalk, lime-chloride and musk) of 

 his own devising. Notwithstanding this, we read on 

 page 35, "the most perfect preser\atives are probably 

 those which contain [which the authoi-'s preservative 

 does not] with alcohol a certain percentage of bichloride 

 of mercury," and on other pages several formula; so com- 



