330 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 
In the last ‘ Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 
Institution ’ for the year ending 1895—date of publication 1897—Dr. R. 
W. Shufeldt, author of ‘ Scientific Taxidermy for Museums,’ draws atten- 
tion to the ‘“ Taxidermical Methods in the Leyden Museum, Holland.” 
This contribution has been induced by the receipt of ‘a MS., illustrated by 
a large series of photographs, received from Mr. H. H. ter Meer, jun., on 
the staff of, and preeparator to, the Museum of Natural History of Leyden.” 
The author explains that in Holland taxidermy is discouraged by the fact 
“that the Dutch biologists filling the more influential positions do not 
exert themselves either by pen or word to powerfully promote the art 
among them. . . . For some years past Mr. H. H. ter Meer has practised 
what Kerr, his able instructor, had taught him, and with ‘ extraordinary 
dexterity ’ he sews strips of tow side by side upon the sculptured body of the 
mammal, in such a manner as to exactly imitate the superficial muscles and 
other parts in the way they occur in nature. Mammals’ heads are ‘ carved 
out of peat,’ and it does not matter out of what substance a mammal is 
modelled, provided the form is reproduced exactly as it would be were the 
animal alive, and that it is possible to drive pins in it without bursting or 
breaking the artificially prepared body, in order to press the skin into the 
hollows between the muscles. Kerr’s methods of imitating the superficial 
anatomical parts require much patience and time to learn and successfully 
practise, and this is apt to discourage many young taxidermists at first, as 
it did Mr. H. H. ter Meer; but its advantages are so great when once 
accomplished, that no abandoning thereafter is ever entertained by the 
expert.” Mr. ter Meer has also ‘‘ succeeded in inventing a material, after 
years of experiment and practice, that possesses the moulding properties of 
clay, and that dries with great rapidity, and never cracks after once setting.” 
This new material, and what can be accomplished by its use, has received 
the approval of Sir William Flower, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, and the artist, 
J. G. Keulemans, who all visited the Museum to investigate the process. 
“In terms most unqualified he condemns the methods of mammal mounting 
practised by Mr. Montagu Browne at the Leicester Museum, and described 
in his recent work.”* Dr. Shufeldt considers he is quite correct in pointing 
* * Practical Taxidermy,’ vide ‘ Zoologist,’ 1897, p. 378. 
