40 SOO. OF AM. TAXIDERMISTS, ANNUAL REPORT. 
The first authentic examples in this comparatively new art, 
with which we are familiar, are those produced through the 
patronage of the Prince Maximilian, of Nieu Wied, Germany. 
This distinguished naturalist had spent several years in exploring 
the bird region of ISTorth and South America. Equipped with 
every needful appliance for successful research, he included in 
the personnel of his staff a practical taxidermist ; and the 
numerous species of American birds and mammals, embracing 
many types of great value, testify to the thorough exploration 
which the Prince accomplished in these regions. It was the 
good fortune of the American Museum of Natural History to 
come into possession of the entire collection of natural objects 
which formed the well-known museum of this naturalist ; and 
thus, through this collection, we have representations of the 
earliest period of the art. 
Among the numerous examples contained in the Maximilian 
collection are a number that yet bear the original label in the 
handwriting of the Prince. The frequent occurrence of ^^Meiner 
Reiser^’’ (My Journey,) accompanied by dates from 1812 upwards, 
a period comprising a full three-score years and ten, is recorded 
testimony of great historical value. Unscathed as those speci- 
mens are by museum pests, they present a most satisfactory 
evidence of the reliability of arsenical treatment as a means of 
perpetuation well nigh indefinite. How much earlier the art 
was practised we have no definite knowledge. The numerous 
stuffed skins of reptiles, or rather mummies, found in the Egyp- 
tian tombs naturally claim our notice as perhaps the earliest 
examples. 
An old narrative of the Carthaginian navigator Hanno has 
been recently verified through extensive research, and that por- 
tion relating to the original discovery of the gorilla may possibly 
have an interesting bearing here on the question of the antiquity 
of our art. It seems by this record that five hundred years 
before the Christian era this old voyager recorded the capture of 
gorillas and the preservation of their skins ; or, as the record has 
it, “ Having killed and fiayed them, we conveyed their skins to 
Carthage.” History also relates that these skins were preserved 
in the temple of Astarte, where they remained until the taking 
