346 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 
ing things; and have a knowledge of osteology and myology. 
He need not particularly know all the anatomy, but must be a 
<elose observer of the outer forms of all animals. Even with all 
.these qualifications, I do not believe that a taxidermist can be 
“made.” He must be born with an “indefinable something” in 
Jiis nature, which will soon develop under proper conditions. 
The scientific development of taxidermy has been one of the 
principal agencies of popularizing museums. With it developed 
group work and the modeling of foliage from the natural plants. 
Museums, as I remember them in my younger days, were dry, 
dreary and of little interest to anybody but scientists. The idea 
of the old fashioned museum director seemed to be, that a mu¬ 
seum was only for scientists. They did not cater to the general 
public. Specimens were simply labeled with scientific names. 
In contrast to this, the museums of the present day have become 
places of popular, as well as scientific education and entertain¬ 
ment. 
