224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



friends suggested that he rent Philosophical Hall. This the society 

 allowed him to do, making him curator and librarian. In describing 

 the moving of the collection he writes : 



To take advantage of public curiosity, I contrived to make a very consid- 

 erable parade of the articles, especially those which were large. As boys are 

 generally very fond of parade, I collected all the boys of the neighborhood. 

 At the head of the parade was carried on men's shoulder's, the American 

 buffalo, the panthers, tiger cats; and a long string of animals carried by the 

 boys. The parade from Lombard Street to the Hall brought all the inhabitants 

 to their doors and windows to see the cavalcade. It was fine fun for the boys. 

 They were willing to work in such a novel removal and saved me some expense 

 in moving the delicate articles. 



Governor Mifflin allowed Peale to fence in part of the State House 

 Garden so as to make a place to keep living animals. Speaking of 

 this, Peale said: 



The cages and animals kept in the yard amused the public much, but was 

 supported with some expense; yet it was a necessary appendage to the museum, 

 as animals that had not come to their full growth are not fit subjects to be 

 preserved, except when some of the young are to be placed with their parents 

 to form family groups, as pictures of the manners of animals. 



Notwithstanding legends to the contrary, this was the only zoological 

 garden that Peale ever attempted to form, it being but a temporary 

 expedient. 



It was not Peale's practise to sell his duplicate specimens; but 

 wherever opportunity offered he would exchange. In this way he was 

 soon in communication with the various museums of Europe and from 

 his letters I find that he sent many specimens to the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, to the British Museum, to the Eoyal Society of Sweden, and 

 many others scattered over Europe. 



It must be remembered that during much of this time Europe was 

 at war. Privateers scoured the seas, which made many letters go 

 astray and caused many cases of specimens to be lost. Notwithstand- 

 ing these troubles he mentions receiving an orang-outang and a 

 " Platipus," and many other beasts from all over the world. 



" Now to show all these things to advantage," said Peale, " required 

 judgment as well as a tasteful disposition of them to be pleasing to the 

 eye as well as useful to enquiring visitors." In classifying animals he 

 followed Linnaeus. In fact he was such an admirer of Linnaeus that 

 he named one of his children after the great Swede. He used Buffon's 

 work to identify the specimens. However, as one would expect in a 

 new country that had been visited by but few naturalists, much of the 

 material gathered by Peale would be classed as " non-descripts." To 

 these Peale gave a common name but did not describe. It fell to the 

 labors of Wilson, Say and other Philadelphia naturalists who followed 

 to describe those animals. As arranged in the cases each animal had 

 on it a label that gave the English, French and (when one had been 

 given to it) Latin name. 



