1839.] " Report on the Museum of the Asiatic Society:' 423 



ago I pointed out to the Society, and practised, with complete success, the 

 plan I suggested of keeping the cases open as much as possible, particu- 

 larly in fine weather. When specimens are well aired, and the pernicious 

 practice of shutting them up in tight cases is abandoned, they can be 

 kept as well in Bengal as in England. I had some in my private col- 

 lections which I prepared seven years before, and in so perfect a state 

 as not to have lost a feather;* and I venture to assert that no one 

 while the Museum was under my charge ever saw one of the specimens 

 prepared from fresh birds, either in a decayed or damaged state. In 

 fact, nothing will keep in a damp climate unless frequently aired, 

 whether animal or vegetable specimens, stationery or linen, silks or 

 satins, pack them in tin and air-tight boxes how we may, — a fact which 

 will be borne testimony to by every old lady in Bengal. 



Again with regard to Dr. Jameson's " desiderata " — I regret that 

 neither he himself, nor any of his friends, consulted the Journal, 

 or inquired what had been done by those predecessors he assumes to be 

 so worthy of censure. Had he done so, he would have found, that 

 I did " get up under the auspices of the Society" the instructions or 

 " memorial" as he terms it, (which forms the first of his list of " desi- 

 derata") giving brief instructions how to collect, prepare, and pack objects 

 of Natural History ; and that it was extensively circulated both by Mr, 

 Prinsep and myself. This memorandum, moreover, was followed by 

 a very long paper of no less than ten closely printed pages in the 

 number of August 1835, of the Journal of the Asiatic Society; in 

 which were detailed the plans followed by the best taxidermists in 

 Europe, and the result of my own experience of eight years in this 

 country. A further experience of four years has given me but little 

 to add; so I think the Society cannot do better than re-print and 

 circulate that paper. I shall be happy to make a few alterations in, 

 and additions to it, and Dr. Jameson will perhaps favour us with his 

 remarks, or some account of such methods as may have been recently 

 brought into notice in Europe; while Dr. M'Clelland can append a 

 list of specimens required by the Society. When my paper was written 

 every thing was welcome, and consequently no such list appended. 

 These papers were eminently successful ; great numbers of specimens 

 having been sent in soon after their having been circulated: probably 

 copies of the shorter one are still in the Secretary's office. 



* For this see the Felis kutas, mihi, in the Society's Museum, which I mounted 

 in December 1831 ; and when I left Calcutta in 1837, nearly six years afterwards, its 

 preservation was so perfect, that though a heavy specimen, I lifted it up by the hair of 

 the back without injury. I need scarcely say it had never been shut up in an air- 

 tight case. . 



