324 



MUSEUMS. 



skins dried as soon as possible. Again, finding that 

 the skins wanted support, they have placed inside 

 of them a hard body of straw, or of tow, or some- 

 times of wood, by way of a solid foundation, into 

 which they might fix their wires. Such a process 

 must effectually destroy every chance of success. 

 The nose, and lips, and ears, &c., of the specimen 

 may look well for a few days after the operation; but, 

 in the course of time, they will become so hideous, 

 that every connoisseur will turn from them in 

 disgust. 



These remarks are just. Let us go and examine 

 a stuffed monkey, for example, in any museum we 

 choose. See ! its once pouting lips are shrunk to 

 parchment ; its artificial eyes are starting frorn the 

 sockets ; its ears seem like the withered leaf of 

 autumn ; and its paws are quite gone to skin and 

 bone. It is what it ought not to be: it is the product 

 of a bad system, which ought to be exploded in 

 these days of research and improvement. But how 

 is this defective system to be improved, so that a 

 specimen may be produced, which shall be right in 

 all its parts, durable as the table on which it is placed, 

 safe from the depredations of the moth, and not 

 liable to injury when exposed to damp ? To effect 

 this, two things are indispensably necessary. The 

 first is, to put the skin of the quadruped upon 

 which you are going to operate in a state to resist 

 putrefaction, and the attacks of the moth, without 

 the use of that dangerous, and at the same time in- 

 efficient, composition, known by the name of arsene- 

 tical soap. The second is, to keep the skin moist 



