12 PEACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



In 1801 we were not more advanced than they were. "What we pos- 

 sessed of this kind appeared insufficient to amateurs. Notwithstanding, 

 many derived advantage from the memoir of Mauduyt, but being inserted 

 in the *' Encyclopedie Methodique," it was not always easy to procure it. 

 There was, besides, only the work of Abbe Manesse, and the tediousnesa 

 of the means which he pointed out frightened all those who desired to 

 learn taxidermy. The professors of natural history to the central schools 

 of the departments felt more than ever the want of a work which furnished 

 the method of preserving and augmenting their zoological collections. 

 In 1802 their wishes were nearly accomplished, for there appeared almost 

 at the same time two works on taxidermy, the one by M. Nicholas, a 

 chemist, the other by M. Henon. M. Nicholas makes an analysis of all 

 that had been said before on the preparation of animals. This view 

 comprehends nearly half the volume. 



Becoeur, of Metz, was the best apothecary in that city. He mounted 

 fresh birds in the greatest perfection, and by a little practice one is sure 

 to succeed with his method. He opened his birds in the usual manner, 

 that is to say, by the middle of the belly. He easily took out the body 

 by this opening without cutting any of the extremities ; he then removed 

 the fiesh by the aid of a scalpel, taking the precaution to preserve all the 

 ligaments ; he anointed the skin, and put the skeleton in its place, care- 

 fully dispersing the feathers on each side. He ran the head through with 

 an iron wire, in which he had formed a little ring at nearly the third of 

 its length ; the smallest side passed into the rump in such a manner that 

 the ring of the iron wire wa3 under the sternum. He then passed a wire 

 into each claw, so that the extremities of the wire united to pass into the 

 little ring ; he bent these extremities within, and fixed them with a string 

 to the iron in the middle of the vertebral column. He replaced the flesh 

 by flax, or chopped cotton, sewed up the bird, placed it on a foot or 

 support of wood, and gave it a suitable attitude, of which he was always 

 sure — for a bird thus mounted could only bend in its natural posture (?). 

 He prepared quadrupeds in the same manner. 



It remains for us to speak of a little work published by Henon and 

 Mouton Fontenelle. They had at first no other object than to read their 

 manuscript to the Athenaeum at Lyons, of which they were members. 

 They were earnestly solicited to print it, and published it in 1802. The 

 authors speak of birds only. They describe an infinity of methods 

 practised by others, and compare them to their own, which, without 

 doubt, are preferable, but too slow to satisfy the impatience of ornitho- 

 logists. 



The book from wMcIl I liave just quoted seems to liave been 



