Produced by Jon Richfield
PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY
A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION TO THE AMATEUR
IN COLLECTING, PRESERVING, AND
SETTING UP NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS OF ALL KINDS.
TO WHICH IS ADDED A CHAPTER UPON
THE PICTORIAL ARRANGEMENT OF MUSEUMS.
ILLUSTRATED.
BY
MONTAGU BROWNE, F.Z.S, etc.
Curator, Town Museum, Leicester.
====================
SECOND EDITION,
Revised and considerably Enlarged,
With additional Instructions in Modelling and Artistic Taxidermy.
====================
LONDON:
1. UPCOTT GILL, BAZAAR BUILDINGS, DRURY LANE, W.C.
(FORMERLY OF 170, STRAND).
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 153-157, FIFTH AVENUE.
Plate I Peregrine Falcon on Flight
Showing Method of Binding etc.
Frontispiece--see chapter V
LONDON:
1. UPCOTT GILL, LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING WORKS,
BAZAAR BUILDINGS. W.C.
PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
THE First Edition of "Practical Taxidermy" having now run through the
press--with, I venture to hope, some profit to students of the art, if
I may judge from the many hundreds Of letters I have from time to time
received--the publishers have invited me to revise such parts of the
work as may be expedient, and also to add many technical methods of
modelling animals an artistic manner.
I do this the more readily because of the narrow way in which most
professional Taxidermists bolster up their art in a secret and
entirely unnecessary manner--unnecessary because amateur can, but by
the severest application, possibly compete with the experience of the
technical or professional worker. No pictorial artist ever pretends he
has a special brush or colours with which he can paint landscapes or
sea pieces at will; he knows that only thorough mastery of the
technicalities of his art--supplemented by wide experience and close
application--enables him to succeed as he does, and to delight people
who, seeing his facility of handling, may imagine that picture
painting is very easy and could be readily acquired--perhaps from
books. So it is with the Taxidermist. Those, therefore, who procure
this book, thinking to do all attempted to be explained therein
without long study and without a knowledge of anatomy, form,
arrangement, and colour, may put it on one side as useless. These
pages are merely an introduction to a delightful art, which must be
wooed with patient determination and loving pains until technical
skill invests it with beauty.
If I can be of any assistance to my readers, I invite them to write to
me if at any time they are puzzled or temporarily disheartened; merely
asking them to remember:
(1)--That, not being in business, I cannot of course answer purely
business communications; and (2)--Not being a man of infinite leisure,
it must also be remembered that a properly directed envelope for
return to the inquirer is of consequence when minutes are precious.
Unlike the Prime Minister, I do not like post-cards, and never answer
them if from unknown correspondents.
I may here mention that this edition is not only considerably
enlarged, but has several woodcuts and four plates added, three of
which latter have been engraved from photographs specially taken for
this work.
I say now, in conclusion, work hard, study hard, and look to good
modellers and painters--and not to bird-stuffers--for conceptions of
form, arrangement, and colour, and in the end, believe me, you will
achieve a better success than attends the labours of those who follow
in the old paths of careless or inartistic Taxidermy.
MONTAGU BROWNE.
LEICESTER.
PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY.
CHAPTER I.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS of TAXIDERMY.
TAXIDERMY, which is derived from two Greek words, a literal
translation of which would signify the "arrangement of skins," appears
to have been practised in a limited degree ages ago, for may we not
say without doubt that the first taxidermists were the ancient
Egyptians, who, despite the fact that they seldom or never appear to
have removed the skin as a whole, as in our modern methods, yet,
taking into consideration the excellent manner in which they preserved
their human or other bodies for thousands of years by the aid of
injections, spices, essential oils, or what not, they may, I think, be
fairly placed in the front rank as the first taxidermists the world
has known. For an account, of the arts used in embalming see
Herodotus, who says:
In Egypt certain persons are appointed by law to exercise this art
(embalming) as their peculiar business; and when a dead body is
brought them they produce patterns of mummies in wood imitated in
painting, the most elaborate of which are said to be of him (Osiris)
whose name I do not think it right to mention on this occasion. The
second which they show is simpler and less costly; the third is the
cheapest. Having exhibited them all, they inquire of the persons who
have applied to them which method they wish to be adopted, and this
being settled, and the price agreed upon, the parties return, leaving
the body with the embalmers.
In preparing it according to the first method, they commence by
extracting the brain from the nostrils with a curved iron probe,
partly clearing the head by this means, and partly by pouring in
certain drugs; then, making an incision in the side with a sharp
Ethiopian stone, they draw out the intestines through the aperture.
Having cleansed and washed them with palm wine they cover them with
pounded aromatics, and afterwards filling the cavity with powder of
pure, myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant substances, frankincense
excepted, they sew it up again. This being done, they salt the body,
keeping it in natron seventy days, to which period they are strictly
confined. When the seventy days are over they wash the body and wrap
it up entirely in bands of fine linen smeared on their inner side with
gum, which the Egyptians generally use instead of glue. The relatives
then take away the body, and have a wooden ease made in the form of a
man, in which they deposit it, and, when fastened up, they keep it in
a room in their house, placing it upright against the wall. This is
the most costly method of embalming.
For those who choose the middle-kind, on account of the expense, they
prepare the body as follows: They fill syringes with oil of cedar, and
inject this into the abdomen, without making any incision or removing
the bowels, and, taking care that the liquid shall not escape, they
keep it in salt during the specified number of days. The cedar oil is
then taken out, and such is its strength, that it brings with it the
bowels and all the inside in a state of dissolution. The natron also
dissolves the flesh, so that nothing remains but the skin and bones.
This process being over, they restore the body without any further
operation.
The third kind of embalming is only adopted for the poor. In this they
merely cleanse the body, by an injection of syrmoea, and salt it
during seventy days, after which it is returned to the friends who
brought it.
The account given by Diodorus is similar, if we except the cost and
time of embalming. The most expensive way of embalming costs a talent
of silver (about 250 pounds sterling); the second, twenty-two minae
(60 pounds); and the third is extremely cheap. The persons who embalm
the bodies are artists who have learnt this secret from their
ancestors. They present to the friends of the deceased who apply to
them an estimate of the funeral expenses, and ask them in what manner
they wish it to be performed, which being agreed upon, they deliver
the body to the proper persona appointed to that office. First, one
who is denominated the scribe, marks upon the left side of the body,
as it lies on the ground, the extent of the incision which is to be
made; then another, who is called the dissector, cuts open as much of
the flesh as the law permits with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and
immediately runs away, pursued by those who are present throwing
stones at him, amidst bitter execrations, as if to cast upon him all
the odium of this necessary act, for they look upon everyone who has
offered violence to, or inflicted b wound or any other injury upon a
human body to be hateful; but the embalmers, on the contrary, are held
in the greatest consideration and respect, being the associates of the
priests, and permitted free access to e temples as sacred persons.
As soon as they have met together to embalm the body thus prepared
them, one introduces his band through the aperture into the abdomen,
and takes everything out except the kidneys and heart, another
cleanses each of the viscera with palm wine and aromatic substances;
lastly, having applied oil of cedar and other things to the whole body
for wards of thirty days, they add myrrh, cinnamon, and those drugs
which have not only the power of preserving the body for a length of
time, but of imparting to it a fragrant odour. It is then restored to
the friends of the deceased; and so perfectly are all the members
preserved even the hair of the eyelids and eyebrows remains
undisturbed, and the whole appearance of the person is so unaltered
that every feature may be recognised.
Sir J. Gardener Wilkinson ("Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians") from whom I have quoted, says that:
"The extraction of the brain by the nostrils is proved by the
appearance of the mummies found in the tombs; and some of the crooked
instruments (always of bronze) supposed to have been used for this
purpose have been discovered at Thebes." The preservatives appear to
have been of two classes, bituminous and saline, consisting, in the
first class, of gums, resins, asphaltum, and pure bitumen, with,
doubtless, some astringent barks powders, etc. rubbed in. Mummies
prepared in this is way are known by their dry, yet flexible skins,
retracted and adherent to the bones; features, and hair, well
preserved and life-like. Those mummies filled with bitumen, have black
skins, hard and shining as if varnished, but with the features
perfect, having been prepared with great care, and even after ages
have elapsed, are but little susceptible to exposure.
Of the mummies of the second class (also filled with resins and
asphaltum), we must assume that their skins and flesh have been
subjected to sodaic or saline products; for Boitard, in a work
published at Paris in 1825, says that an injection is made with oil of
cedar and common salt, also, that they wash the corpse with nitre and
leave it to steep for seventy days, at the end of which time they
remove the intestines, which the injection has corroded, and replace
their loss by filling the cavity of the abdomen with nitre. This is
also borne out by Wilkinson, who says:
"On exposure to air they (the mummies) become covered with
efflorescence of sulphate of soda, and also readily absorb moisture
from the atmosphere."
It appears, also, that after the period of preparation (thirty, forty,
or seventy days, as fixed by various authors), the corpse was
relieved, in the first-class ones, of all the old saline, nitrous, or
resinous products, and re-filled with costly resins, aromatic spices,
and bitumen; which, says Monsieur Rouyer:
"Having styptic, absorbent, and balsamic qualities, would produce a
kind of tanning operation on the body, which would also, no doubt, be
heightened by the washing with palm wine."
He here broaches the ingenious and highly probable theory, that the
corpse, during its mummification, was placed in stoves of a certain
temperature, where the heat gradually and closely united the various
preservative agents before mentioned. They were then swathed in linen
bandages of great length, and enclosed in beautifully painted and
gilded cartonages; the faces were heavily gilded and the eyes imitated
in enamel; they were then inclosed in three or four cases, also richly
gilded and painted, and finally "mounted" in a sarcophagus.
Common people appear in some cases to have been merely salted and
plunged in liquid pitch, others were simply salted and dried. Mummies
prepared by these methods freely attract moisture--are ill preserved,
and, therefore, as a matter of course, fall to pieces easily on
contact with external air.
In summing up the process of embalming, as described by the authors
just quoted, we find a few problems of more or less difficulty, and
which none of them appear inclined to solve; and I do not wonder at
this, as the attempt, in my own case, in one or two instances, has
involved days of study and references to dozens of medical and other
works with but a meagre result. However, to take them seriatim, we can
assume, I think, with some show of evidence, that the Ethiopian stone,
mentioned as being used to make the first incision in the corpse,
might have been a piece of obsidian or basalt, but most probably was
merely an ordinary sharp flint of a dark colour.
The first chemical used in embalming is the hardest nut of all to
crack, and on which I have most exercised my intellectual teeth--and
that is natron. Now, what is natron? [Footnote: Natrium is the old
Latin term for the metal or base we now call sodium. The old names for
some of its salts were: Natron Carbonicum--or Bicarbonate of Soda;
Natron Vitriolatum--or Sulphate of Soda; discovered or re-discovered
about 1670. Nitrum =Carbonate of soda.] Ordinary dictionaries and
authors tell us, as a matter of course--carbonate of soda. In support
of this theory M. Rouyer writes:
"The natron would be used just as it was got from many of the lakes of
Egypt, where it is found abundantly in the form of carbonate of soda."
Pereira, in "Materia Medica," though intimating that natron is not to
be confounded with nitre, says, in speaking of carbonate of soda:
"This salt was probably known to the ancients under the term of
Nitron."
Now, as Nitron is more likely, from its etymology, to be translated
"nitre," we are landed into another difficulty, if by nitre we mean
saltpetre, for that will, as we all know, preserve animal tissue for a
certain time; however, I do not think we can translate natron as being
nitre (saltpetre), for in former days many salts were included under
the general term nitre; for instance, our common soda and potash, the
chemical composition of which was unknown until Davy, in 1807,
extracted the metals sodium and potassium from those salts. Boitard
expressly states:
"Il parait que ce natrum était un alkali fixe, et pas du tout du nitre
comme quelques auteurs l'ont pensé; ce qui semblerait appuyer cette
opinion, c'est que lea femmes egyptiennes se servaient de natrum pour
faire leur lessive, comme on as sert aujourd'hui de la soude."
In Peru the soil may be said to be impregnated with nitre, but that is
nitrate of soda, and not really saltpetre (nitrate of potassium), as
many people imagine who hear it called simply nitre.
Mr. Thos. W. Baker, who has most obligingly unearthed several old
works for me, says:
"Now I think of it, natron is perfectly familiar to me as apparently a
mixture of broken soda crystals and a brown earth which is sold in the
bazaars of India, under the name of 'sootjee moogee,' for domestic
purposes; and I know, from experience, that unless it is washed off
paint work directly it is passed over it with a cloth all the paint
comes off bare, sometimes to the wood."
Again, he says:
"In Bayley's Dictionary, circa 1730, I find the following: 'Natron;
or, a Natron, from Gr. Natron (?), a kind of black greyish salt, taken
out of a lake of stagnant water in the territory of Terrana, in
Egypt."
Also see "Penny Cyclopaedia," vol. xvi, p. 105, "Natron, native
sesquicarbonate of soda (see 'Sodium'):"
"The Natron Lakes, which are six in number, are situated in a valley
bordering upon Lower Egypt, and are remarkable for the great quantity
of salt which they produce. The crystallisations are both of muriate
of soda (or common salt) and of carbonate of soda. ... The 'Natron' is
collected once a year, and is used both in Egypt and Syria, as also in
Europe, for manufacturing glass and soap, and for bleaching linen."
Turning to "Sodium" for the sesquicarbonate, which is found native in
Hungary, and also near Fezzan, in Africa:
'By the natives it is called "Trona." It is found in hard striated
crystalline masses, and is not altered by exposure to the air, but is
readily soluble in water. This salt appears to be formed when a
solution of the carbonate of soda is heated with carbonate of ammonia,
and probably also when a solution of the bicarbonate is heated. Its
taste is less alkaline than that of the carbonate, into which it is
converted when strongly heated by losing one-third of its carbonic
acid.'
That it was one of the products of soda cannot reasonably be doubted.
Biborate of soda (with which I have been experimenting lately) has
certainly wonderfully preservative powers, especially in conjunction
with common salt, or saltpetre; but then it has not the caustic
properties of natron. May not natron have been a fixed alkali, or has
the native carbonate of soda more caustic and antiseptic properties
than the usual carbonate of soda of commerce, which plainly cannot be
intended?
We have here a most interesting subject to solve as to the component
parts of the ancient natron; my suspicion is that natron, as used by
the Egyptians, was a mixture of biborate of soda, caustic soda, and
muriate of soda. [Footnote: The following report appeared in the
California Alta, 24th June. 1874:
"AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY.--Several weeks ago we mentioned the
departure of Mr. Arthur Robottom, Birmingham, England, on a search for
borax in the southern part of California. He has now returned,
bringing news of an interesting and valuable discovery. Beyond the
Sierra Nevada, in the Enclosed Basin of North America, about 140 miles
in a north-eastward direction from Bakersfield, there is the bed of a
dry lake filled over an area of fifteen miles long by six wide with
saline crystals to a depth of about six or eight feet. The appearance
of the surrounding country clearly indicates that water once stood
sixty feet deep here over a large area, the ancient beach being
distinctly traceable. The most remarkable fact about this-saline
deposit is that in its middle there is a tract, five miles long and
two wide, of common salt, while on the outside there is a deposit of
borate of soda, three feet thick, and under this a lower stratum
composed of sulphate of soda and tincal mixed together, from one to
three feet thick. These minerals are all in crystals, the sulphate of
soda and tincal forming a solid mass, almost like stone in its
hardness. The borate of soda is of a dirty hue, but the salt, which
lies above the level of the entire deposit, in some places to a depth
of seven feet, is white as snow. The report of natural deposits thus
situated will appear very improbable to scientific men, for there is
nothing to account for the separation of the salt from the borates, or
for the accumulation of salt above the level of other crystalline
deposits. We have Mr. Robottom for authority, and the country is open
for those who wish to examine for themselves. The place can easily be
found. It is known as the Borax Fields in the Slate Range, and will be
examined carefully by many competent men, since the tincal--a crude
borate of soda--is a valuable mineral, and can be separated, at little
expense, from the sulphate of soda."]
The next chemical agent we have to notice (which should, however, have
appeared prior to natron), is palm wine, used in the first process of
cleansing the intestines; this would doubtless act as an astringent,
and would, of course, tend to coagulate the liquid albumen contained
in the body (in a similar manner to our ordinary spirits of wine),
which, if followed by a caustic alkali (such as natron may have been),
to dissolve the solid albumen, fibrin and gelatine, ought certainly to
have exercised a decidedly tanning influence.
Following this is oil of cedar. The present oil of cedar (ol cedrat of
commerce) cannot be intended, as that is made from the citron, and
being merely an essential oil can have little of the antiseptic or
corrosive qualities imputed to the ancient oil of cedars. May it not
have been a product distilled from the actual cedar tree (one of the
coniferae) similar to our oil or spirit of turpentine? I have,
however, been unable to discover any writings in certain support of
this theory; "Encyclopaedia Britannica" merely mentions it as "a
certain oily liquor extracted from the cedar;" while Boitard boldly
says, "... Sans doute l'essence de terebenthine." [Footnote: The
Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharmacy for July, 1876. gives a report
of a case of poisoning through an overdose of oil of red cedar (oleum
juniper virginianae) which supports my theory as to there being
extracted an oil from the Lebanon (or other) cedars partaking of the
nature of turpentine and totally distinct from ol cedrat.]
Whatever may have been the composition of--and manner of applying--the
foregoing agents, it is certain that they had the effect intended, for
Diodorus writes fully within bounds when mentioning the life-like
appearance of the features in mummies, as we know by later
discoveries, for there are some well-known specimens still in
existence of which the eyelids, lashes, eyebrows, and hair are still
in their natural state, and this after an interval of thousands of
years. In some mummies, for instance, the contour of the features is
plainly discernible, and surely this is scientific "preparation of
specimens" not to be excelled in the present day.
The Egyptian mode of embalming was imitated occasionally by the Jews,
Greeks, Romans, and other nations, and has sometimes been adopted in
modern times, but never to the same extent or perfection as they
attained. The only other method which is known to have been adopted as
a national custom was that practised by the Guanches, the ancient
inhabitants of the Canary Isles. Their mummies are particularly
described by M. Bortj de St. Vincent, in his 'Essai sur les Isles
Fortunées.' Numerous and vast catacombs are filled with them in each
of the thirteen islands, but the best known is one in Teneriffe, which
contained upwards of a thousand bodies. The mummies are sewn up in
goat or sheep skins, and five or six are commonly found together, the
skin over the head of one being stitched to that over the feet of
another; but those of the great are contained in cases hollowed out of
a piece of savin wood. The bodies are not bandaged, and are dry, light
tan-coloured, and slightly aromatic. Several of them are completely
preserved with distinct, though distorted, features.
The method of embalming adopted by the Guanches consisted in removing
the viscera in either of the same ways as the Egyptians practised,
then filling the cavities with aromatic powders, frequently washing
and anointing the surface, and, lastly, drying the body very carefully
for fifteen or sixteen days in the sun or by a stove.
[Footnote: My friend, the late Thos. Baker, wrote me, some time before
his sad death by shipwreck: "In an old work which I have, 'A General
Collection of Voyages,' I find the following relating to the
'Guanches' in vol. i, book ii, chap. i, page 184, 'The Voyage of Juan
Rejon to the Canary Islands, AD. 1491': 'When any person died, they
preserved the body in this manner: First, they carried it to a cave
and stretched it on a fiat stone, where they opened it and took out
the bowels; then, twice a day, they washed the porous parts of the
body, viz, the arm-pits, behind the ears, the groin, between the
fingers, and the neck, with cold water. After washing it sufficiently
they anointed those parts with sheep's butter (?), and sprinkled them
with a powder made of the dust of decayed pine trees, and a sort of
brushwood which the Spaniards call Brefsos, together with the powder
of pumice stone. Then they let the body remain till it was perfectly
dry, when the relatives of the deceased came and swaddled it in sheep
or goat skins dressed. Girding all tight with long leather thongs,
they put it in the cave which had been set apart by the deceased for
his burying place, without any covering. There were particular persons
set apart for this office of embalming, each sex performing it for
those of their own. During the process they watched the bodies very
carefully to prevent the ravens from devouring them, the relations of
the deceased bringing them victuals and waiting on them during the
time of their watching.'"]
So complete is the desiccation of these mummies, that a whole body,
which Blumenbach possessed, weighed only 7.5 lb, though the dried
skeleton of a body of the same size, as usually prepared, weighs at
least 9 lb.
In some situations the conditions of the soil and atmosphere, by the
rapidity with which they permit the drying of the animal tissues to be
effected, are alone sufficient for the preservation of the body in the
form of a mummy; this is the case in some parts of Peru, especially at
Arica, where considerable numbers of bodies have been found quite dry
in pits dug in a saline dry soil. There is an excellent specimen of a
mummy of this kind in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, which was
brought from Caxamarca by General Paroissien--like most of them, it is
in a sitting posture, with the knees almost touching the chin, and the
hands by the sides of the face. It is quite dry and hard; the features
are distorted, but nearly perfect, and the hair has fallen off. The
Peruvian mummies do not appear to have been subjected to any
particular preparation, the dry and absorbent earth in which they are
placed being sufficient to prevent them from putrefying. M. Humboldt
found the bodies of many Spaniards and Peruvians lying on former
fields of battle dried and preserved in the open air. In the deserts
of Africa the preservation of the body is secured by burying it in the
hot sand; and even in Europe soils are sometimes met with in which the
bodies undergo a slow process of drying, and then remain almost
unalterable even on exposure to the air and moisture. There is a vault
at Toulouse in which a vast number of bodies that have been buried
were found, after many years, dry and without a trace of the effects
of putrefaction; and in the vaults of St. Michael's Church, Dublin,
the bodies are similarly preserved. In both cases putrefaction is
prevented by the constant absorption of the moisture from the
atmosphere, and through its medium from the body by the calcareous
soil in which the vaults are dug.--Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. xv, p.
477."
Having now given a brief sketch of the best-known methods of
preserving Nature's greatest handiwork--Man--I may mention that the
Egyptians also devoted their energies to the preservation of those
things more intimately connected with our theme, namely, mammals,
birds, etc. A people who knew how to preserve and arrest from decay the
carcase of so immense an animal as the hippopotamus (a mummy of which
was discovered at Thebes), or the various bulls, cows, dogs, cats,
mice, ichneumons, hawks, ibises, fishes, serpents, crocodiles, and
other sacred animals (mummies of which have been and are constantly
found), must have had some glimmerings of taxidermy; many of the
subjects are preserved in so beautiful a manner that mummied ibises,
hawks, etc, are occasionally discovered even in a good state of
preservation, and Cuvier actually found in the intestines of a mummied
ibis (Ibis religiosa, a species still found, though rarely, in Egypt)
the partly-digested skin and scales of a snake!
From this period of the world's history I can discover but few links
to the chain of Practical Taxidermy.
True it is that the Greeks, Romans, and the tribes which inhabited
ancient Britain must have had some knowledge of preserving Skins of
animals slaughtered by them in the chase, for we everywhere read of
the skins of lions, tigers, wolves, etc, being used for purposes of
necessity, as in the case of those barbarians who clothed themselves
with skins as a protection from the inclemency of the weather, and
also in the case of the luxurious Greeks and Romans, who used skins in
the adornment of their persons or homes. In fact, the conversion of
skins into leather must be of the highest antiquity, for, in the Leeds
mummy described in 1828, there was found on the bandages of the head
and face a thong composed of three straps of leather, and many of the
Egyptian divinities are represented with a lion or leopard skin as a
covering for the throne, etc.; and do we not read in many places in
Holy Writ of leather and of tanners?--a notable instance, to wit, in
Simon, the tanner--in fact, the ancient history of all nations teems
with the records of leather and of furs; but of the actual setting up
of animals as specimens I can find no trace.
I doubt, however, if we can carry taxidermy proper farther back than
to about 150 years ago, at which date naturalists appear to have had
some idea of the proper preservation and mounting of natural history
specimens; but Réaumur, more than a century and a quarter ago,
published a treatise on the preservation of skins of birds; however,
as his plan was simply setting up with wires birds which had
previously been steeped in spirits of wine, his method did not find
much favour. It appears that, just after that time, the system was
tried of skinning birds in their fresh state, and also of cutting the
skins longitudinally in two halves, and filling the one half with
plaster; then the skin was fixed to a backboard, an eye was inserted,
and the beak and legs were imitated by painting: and this was then
fixed in a sort of framework of glass. This system is still followed
to a certain extent; for, fifteen years ago, when I was in one of the
Greek islands, a German came round the town selling birds mounted in
the same way, and also mounted feather by feather.
To quote now from the translation of a French work, published by
Longman, Rees, and Co, in London, in 1820, we find that "A work
appeared at Lyons in 1758, entitled 'Instructions on the Manner of
Collecting and Preparing the Different Curiosities of Natural
History.'" [Footnote: The sixth edition, twenty-three years later, has
this title, "Taxidermy, or the Art of Preparing and Mounting Objects
of Natural History for the use of Museums and Travellers, by Mrs. R.
Lee, formerly Mrs. J. Edward Bowdich. Sixth edition, 1843. Longman,
Brown, Green, and Longman."]
The author was the first who submitted some useful principles for
taxidermy. He ornamented his book with many plates, more than half of
which are in all respects foreign to his subject, as they simply
represent shells, and other marine productions, with their
descriptions.
In 1786, the Abbé Manesse published a volume under the title of
"Treatise on the Manner of Stuffing and Preserving Animals and Skins."
He presented his work to the Academy, who made a favourable report of
it.
Mauduyt has given a memoir on the manner of preparing dead birds for
forming collections. (See la 5ème "Livraison de l'Encyclopédie,
Méthodique, Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux," t. i, deuxième partie, p.
435.) By studying his method we may, with perseverance, be able to
mount birds well, although he had never prepared them himself, for he
has composed his memoir from the notes which Lerot furnished him, who
mounted them very well, and who merited the confidence which Mauduyt
had accorded him in all the preparations which his fine collection
required.
An old sculptor, living at Lahaye, devoted himself to the practice of
taxidermy, and in a short time surpassed all those who had employed
themselves in mounting animals, especially large mammalia.
It seems that neither the English nor the Dutch have published any
work which treats of the method of mounting animals according to
system.
In 1801 we were not more advanced than they were. What we possessed of
this kind appeared insufficient to amateurs. Notwithstanding, many
derived advantage from the memoir of Mauduyt, but being inserted in
the "Encyclopédie Méthodique," it was not always easy to procure it.
There was, besides, only the work of Abbé Manesse, and the tediousness
of the means which he pointed out frightened all those who desired to
learn taxidermy. The professors of natural history to the central
schools of the departments felt more than ever the want of a work
which furnished the method of preserving and augmenting their
zoological collections. In 1802 their wishes were nearly accomplished,
for there appeared almost at the same time two works on taxidermy, the
one by M. Nicholas, a chemist, the other by M. Henon. M. Nicholas
makes an analysis of all that had been said before on the preparation
of animals. This view comprehends nearly half the volume.
Bécoeur, of Metz, was the best apothecary in that city. He mounted
fresh birds in the greatest perfection, and by a little practice one
is sure to succeed with his method. He opened his birds in the usual
manner, that is to say, by the middle of the belly. He easily took out
the body by this opening without cutting any of the extremities; he
then removed the flesh by the aid of a scalpel, taking the precaution
to preserve all the ligaments; he anointed the skin, and put the
skeleton in its place, carefully dispersing the feathers on each side.
He ran the head through with an iron wire, in which he had formed a
little ring at nearly the third of its length; the smallest side
passed into the rump in such a manner that 'the ring of the iron wire
was under the sternum. He then passed a wire into each claw, so that
the extremities of the wire united to pass into the little ring; he
bent these extremities within, and fixed them with a string to the
iron in the middle of the vertebral column. He replaced the flesh by
flax, or chopped cotton, sewed up the bird, placed it on a foot or
support of wood, and gave it a suitable attitude, of which he was
always sure--for a bird thus mounted could only bend in its natural
posture (?). He prepared quadrupeds in the same manner.
It remains for us to speak of a little work published by Henon and
Mouton Fontenelle. They had at first no other object than to read
their manuscript to the Athenaeum at Lyons, of which they were
members. They were earnestly solicited to print it, and published it
in 1802. The authors speak of birds only. They describe an infinity of
methods practised by others, and compare them to their own, which,
without doubt, are preferable, but too slow to satisfy the impatience
of ornithologists.
The book from which I have just quoted seems to have been the only
reliable text book known at that period, and with the exception of
certain modern improvements in modelling and mounting, contains a mass
of--for that day--valuable elementary information. In fact, the French
and German taxidermists were then far in advance of us, a stigma which
we did not succeed in wiping off until after the Great Exhibition of
1851.
Although, as I have just said, the French and Germans excelled us in
the setting up of specimens, yet their collections did not, in all
cases, exceed ours in point of interest or magnitude, for the old
taxidermists had been at work prior to 1725, at which date it is
recorded that the museum of Sir Hans Sloane (the nucleus of our
British Museum collection) contained the following number of
specimens: Mammals, 1194; birds, 753; reptiles, 345; fishes, 1007. A
gradual increase appeared by 1753, when the figures stood: Mammals,
1886; birds, 1172; reptiles, 521; fishes, 1555. A great proportion of
these were, however, not stuffed specimens, but simply bones and
preparations of fleshy parts in spirits. Nothing shows the gradual
rise and progress of taxidermy better than the history of the British
Museum, which, under the then name of Montagu House, was opened to the
public by special ticket on Jan. 15, 1759.
Soon after its opening the natural history collections appear to have
claimed more interest from the public, for in 1765 we had a very good
collection of butterflies, and in 1769 the trustees acquired, by
purchase, a considerable collection of stuffed birds from Holland. The
restrictions on visitors were, however, vexatious, people of all
classes being hurried through the rooms at a tremendous speed--vide
Hutton, the Birmingham historian, who visited it in 1784, and relates
how he would fain have spent hours looking at things for which only
minutes were allowed. From this period up to 1816 (at which date the
valuable ornithological collection of Col. Montagu was purchased for
the nation at a cost of £11,000) the additions to the natural history
galleries were not many, probably owing to the troublous times;
however, when we had succeeded in breaking the power of Napoleon and
restored peace to Europe, naturalists and taxidermists found that the
public had then time and inclination to devote themselves to their
collections or works.
Accordingly, during the next twenty years many works (including those
before noted) were written on taxidermy, the most notable being by
Swainson, Brown, and that eccentric genius Waterton, whom we may call
the pioneer of our present system of mounting, and who, in his usual
caustic style, pointed out the very inferior way in which specimens
were then mounted.
At the end of his "Wanderings in South America" appeared a treatise on
Taxidermy, but, as he decried the use of arsenical preparations, and
mounted his birds without wires in a fashion peculiar to himself, his
system did not find favour in the eyes of the school of rigid
stuffing, who had not then worked out the present happy compromise
between his style and theirs. His patience must have been
inexhaustible; indeed, the Rev. J. G. Wood, who knew him well, has
told me of many instances in which he spent days in scraping out the
hands and feet of the larger apes until he got them as thin as paper,
and also of his delight when he invented the kid-glove substitute for
a peacock's face much to the astonishment of the reverend gentleman.
Of course; all these works on the preservation of natural history
objects and the labours of collectors directed the public mind to the
contemplation of natural history.
The British Museum at this time also--relieved of a few of the
restrictions on admission--became more popular, and in 1836 we find
the natural history collections were as follow: Mammals, species 405;
birds, species 2400; constituting altogether in specimens the sum
total of 4659. Of reptiles we could boast--species 600, specimens
1300; fish 1000 specimens. These figures did not contrast favourably
with the Paris Museum as in the days of old for now Paris stood:
Mammals, species 500; birds, species 2300; grand total of specimens
6000. Of fish the French had four times as many as we (and beat us,
proportionately, in other sections), while we were far in advance in
this class of the Vienna and Berlin Museums. In shells (not fossils),
London and Paris were equal and much superior to Berlin and Leyden. In
1848 an extraordinary increase (marking the great interest taken in
taxidermical science) had taken place; we now had added to the British
Museum since 1836, 29,595 specimens, comprising 5797 mammals, 13,414
birds, 4112 reptiles, 6272 fish.
In mammals and birds we held the proud position of having the finest
and most extensive collection in the world, while in reptiles and fish
we were again beaten by Paris. In proof of the growing interest taken
in natural history, we find that in 1860 the number of visitors to the
natural history department was greatly in excess of all the other
departments; and at the present time the attendance has greatly
increased, as also the objects exhibited, a fact patent to all who
will take the trouble to visit the British Museum, or to inspect the
official catalogues published from time to time, a synopsis of which
cannot at present be given owing to their extent and variety; but we
can assume, I think, that we have as complete a natural history
collection as is to be found in any of the museums of the world.
[Footnote: Some idea of the extent of the National Natural History
Collections may be gathered from the pages of the recently-published
British Museum "Catalogues" 1874-82, where, in many instances, the
number of specimens of a certain order of birds contained in the
Museum falls very little short of the ascertained number of species
for the whole of the world.]
Though taxidermy flourished, as we see, for some years previous to the
Great Exhibition of 1851, yet that decidedly gave a considerable
impetus to the more correct and artistic delineation of animals,
especially in what may be called the grotesque school instituted by
the Germans, which, though it may perhaps be decried on the score of
misrepresenting nature in the most natural way possible, yet teaches a
special lesson by the increased care necessary to more perfectly
render the fine points required in giving animals that serio-comic and
half-human expression which was so intensely ridiculous and yet
admirable in the studies of the groups illustrating the fable of
"Reinecke the Fox," which were in the Wurtemburgh Court, class XXX.
and were executed by H. Ploucquet, of Stuttgart. These groups, or
similar ones, are now to be seen in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.
In nearly all of these groups the modelling and the varied expressions
of hope, fear, love, and rage, were an immense step in advance of the
old wooden school of taxidermy; specimens of which are still to be
found in museums--stiff, gaunt, erect, and angular. Copies of those
early outrages on nature may still be seen in the dreary plates of the
anything but "animated" work of "poor Goldie," who, as Boswell said,
"loved to shine" in what was least understood.
16 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY.
From this era the English artists, having had their eyes opened by the
teachings of the foreign exhibits of 1851, steadily gained ground, and
the Wards having the sense to employ, in the first instance, foreign
artistic workmen, rapidly pushed to the front, until the finest animal
study of ancient or modern times was achieved by one of them--the
"Lion and Tiger Struggle," exhibited at Paris, and afterwards at the
Sydenham Crystal Palace. This, and one or two analogous works, carried
the English to the foremost ranks of zoological artists; and now that
we embellish our taxidermic studies with natural grasses, ferns, etc.
and with representations of scenery and rockwork, in the endeavour to
carry the eye and mind to the actual localities in which the various
species of animals are found--an advance in art not dreamed of fifty
years ago--and also correctly model the heads and limbs of animals, we
still hold our own, and are as far advanced in taxidermy as any other
nation.