CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 



TAXIDERMY 



The origin of taxidermy as a purely decorative art is involved 

 in some obscurity, although the name itself, derived from the 

 Greek — ra^t?, order, arrangement, or preparation, and Bepfia, 

 skin — plainly reveals its first intention. No doubt the pre- 

 paration of skins for practical utility dates from the very 

 earliest times. In the rude flint " knives " and " scrapers " 

 found in such caves as those of the Dordogne and many other 

 places, there is abundant evidence that pleistocene man knew 

 how to flay and dress skins in some manner. It is manifestly 

 clear that he could not have existed as a contemporary of 

 animals such as the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bear, and 

 numberless other beasts specially protected from the cold, 

 without clothing of some kind, and, before the discovery of the 

 art of weaving, the most obvious expedient was to convert to 

 his own purposes the skins of the animals he trapped or 

 otherwise overcame. As skins, to be worn at all, whether with 

 the fur inside or out, must be softened in some manner, there 

 is no reason to doubt that, either by scraping, and rubbing 

 with earth, roots, or wood-ashes, or by a ley, he ultimately 

 succeeded in the " preparation of skins," and thus became the 

 first " taxidermist." 



