3^ 
SOO. OF AM. TAXIDERMISTS, ANXITAL REPORT. 
mass of clay can be kept soft for many days by keeping the skin 
wbicb covers it wrapped in Mmt clotlis and thorongbly moist. It 
retains its form witliont any expanding or contracting, is very 
hard and solid wdien dry, but can be softened at any time if it is 
desired to change any jiarticnlar feature. It is easily M^ashed out 
of hair wdthont leaving the slightest stain in the finest and whit- 
est coat, and it contains no chemical property calculated to damage 
or destroy a skin. 
The general use of potters’ clay as indicated above cannot fail 
to show a marked improvement in certain important points of 
taxiderinic work, and which I believe cannot so easily or so well 
be attained in any other way, if indeed they can at all. 
A CRITIQUE ON MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 
i5Y FREDERIC A. LUCAS. 
If one were asked to define tlie pm-poses of Mnsenms of Nat- 
ural History, he might very likely reply that they M'ere for the 
preservation of natural objects, their study, and fur the instruction 
of the public by the exhibition of such objects.'^' 
Now, it is only a very small portion of the last part of this 
detinition that I propose to discuss, for although there are many 
things that I Avould like to dwell upon, I feel that they would be 
entirely out of place in an article on taxidermy, and will merely 
say that what Mnsenms are and what they should be are quite as 
different as a dictionary and an encyclopedia. The particular 
points, to which I wish to call attention and which it seems to me 
might be changed for the better, is the style of mounting of birds 
and mammals as generally seen in Mnsenms. At first upon en- 
tering a Mnsemn we are a little dazzled by the number of animals, 
but as this feeling wears away we notice that there is somehow a 
certain air of monotony about them all. Nine tenths, or more, 
of the Carnivores have their months wide open, and are trying 
to look fierce without having any adequate cause for so doing, 
and witliont, in the least, showing their emotion by their attitude. 
The primary ohject of a museum is to provide the student with material for his researches. 
