312 MR. O. THOMAS ON SPECIMENS FORMERLY [May 3, 



Now in reference to these serious statements, it may be observed 

 that Seba's great collection consisted of mammals, birds, reptiles, 

 scorpions, shells, echinoderms, and many other invertebrates, and 

 might, therefore, easilj be " en grande partie de'terioree," especially 

 as regards the softer and more destructible invertebrates, and yet 

 leave the majority of the mammals unhurt ; while, as regards the 

 Roval Antelope (" notre Spiniger "), of course the accidental open- 

 ing or leakage of a single bottle would imph"^ the destruction of its 

 contents. But except for Temminck's bare statement, and it is by 

 no means certain that he really knew much about the condition of 

 " toute la collection," he only having obtained " quelques bocaux," 

 there seems to be no reason whatever that specimens preserved as 

 these are in hermetically sealed bottles and in good preserving 

 fluid should be really seriously deteriorated merely by the lapse of 

 time. Certainly, judging by the present condition of the Lidth de 

 Jeude collection, there seems to be no reason against their having 

 been in the bottles they now are for the past IGO years, or, if 

 untouched, for their remaining very much in their present con- 

 dition for centuries more. 



Of other references to this collection, at this time or later, I 

 can find no trace. Probably it got into the hands of one or several 

 successive private and scientifically unknown collectors of curiosities 

 before coming into the possession of Prof. Lidth de Jeude. 



Of the latter's museum, we only know what is stated io the 

 preface to his sale-catalogue of 1858. In this he utters a pathetic 

 lament at being forced to part with his collection, the result of 

 half a century's labour. This period would carry back the com- 

 mencement of his collecting to 1808, a date very near that when 

 som.e of the Seba specimens were certainly still in existence, as we 

 know from Temminck. Among the collections and even " JNlusees 

 entiers " which he acquired during the half-century were those of 

 " Mr. le Baron van der Capellen, ancien Gouverneur des Indes 

 Orientales, Mr. van Klinkenberg, amateur zele a Utrecht, Messrs. 

 Muller, Draak, etc." 



Of these gentlemen the first would not have been likely to possess 

 a general collection, of the last two I know nothing ; but of the 

 second, the most likely sounding of all, thanks to the kind researches 

 of Dr. F. A. Jentink, of the Leyden Museum, we know that his 

 full name was Gysbert Johannes van Klinkenberg, that he set up 

 as an apothecary in Utrecht in 1802, that he had large Natural 

 History collections, and that these were sold by auction on Nov. 8, 

 1841. The majority of the specimens were bought by Prof. Lidth 

 de Jeude, but as this was done privately no sale-catalogue of them 

 was printed. It may be noted, however, that among the books 

 sold ^ at that sale there were two copies of Seba's ' Thesaurus,' 

 rather a cumbrous work for an ordinary collector to have in duplicate, 

 if he had not had some special reason for possessing them. 



1 I must sincerely thank Dr. Jentink for the care and trouble that he has 

 taken iu helping lue to trace out the history of this collection, and, among other 

 things, for haviug lent me a copy of this rare sale-catalogue, as well as a marked 

 copy of Lidth de Jeude's own catalogue. 



