MAMMALS SET UP BY MEANS OF MANNIKINS 119 



This paring of the skin answered our purpose in two essential 

 points : first, by facilitating the means of enveloping the model entirely, 

 the form of which had not been altered ; and, secondly, by ensuring its 

 speedy desiccation. This last had not been the least alarming, for we 

 feared that the humidity secreted in the skin might concentrate in such 

 a manner (notwithstanding we had taken the precautioii to give the 

 wooden model a coat of oil-paint) as to occasion mouldiness in the 

 parts exposed to the air. The alum with which it was saturated soon 

 crystallised on the interior, which at first gave it a very ugly grey colour ; 

 but we entirely got rid of it by rubbing the surface of the skin, first 

 with spirits of turpentine, and then with oil of olives. 



In the Standard oi 12th March, 1886, appeared an article 

 entitled " The last of Jumbo," the facts presumably contributed 

 by Prof. H. A. Ward, of Rochester, U.S.A., in wrhich details 

 of measurements and weights of the model and materials used 

 in setting-up " Jumbo " are given. To this article the present 

 writer replied, in the issue of the iSth following, that although 

 our American cousins were generally well to the fore, if not in 

 advance of the times, yet in this case they were quite as much 

 behindhand in such matters as ourselves, and that the resources 

 of the modeller, combined with those of the engineer and fitter, 

 should have prevented the building up of so clumsy and 

 weighty a structure as described, which was, indeed, no advance 

 on the knowledge derived from the taxidermists (or rather 

 " stuffers ") of the eighteenth century. There was certainly no 

 need to build a " huge frame of wood and iron," when a much 

 stronger and infinitely lighter structure of prepared paper and 

 steel would have accomplished the work required in a much 

 more effectual manner. The weight of three tons recorded was 

 certainly great for a finished model, when it is taken into 

 consideration that Jumbo weighed when alive no more than 

 six tons. 



The treatment of the hide was commonplace, being left 

 too thick and heavy, as evidenced by the thicknesses given — 



