Practical Taxidermy

D PROGRESS

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 t

ost 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 exhib

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 entir

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 bowe

merely cleanse the body, by an injection of syrmoea, and salt it during

k 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, pur

stances; 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 od

nd Customs of the Ancient Egyptians")

mummies found in the tombs; and some of the crooked instruments (always of bro

tc.., 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 wit

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

ered with efflorescence of sulphate of soda, and

us authors), the corpse was relieved, in the first-class ones, of all the old saline, nitrous, or resinou

oduce a kind of tanning operation on the body, which would a

osely 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;

ere simply salted and dried. Mummies prepared by these methods freely attract moisture - are ill pr

mpt, 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

s 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; dis

om many of the lakes of Egypt, where it is foun

ng that natron is not to be confounded with n

wn to the ancients under th

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

urs l'ont pensé; ce qui semblerait appuyer cette opinion, c'est que lea femmes egyptiennes

hat is nitrate of soda, and not really saltpetre (nitrate of pot

most obligingly unearthed se

s sold in the bazaars of India, under the name of 'sootjee moogee,' for domestic purposes; and I know, from experience, that unl

, he

Natron, from Gr. Natron (?) ( Natron), a kind of black greyish salt, tak

xvi., p. 105, "Natron, native sesqu

of salt which they produce. The crystallisations are both of muriate of soda (or common salt) and of carbonate of soda. ... The "Natron" is

bonate, which is found native in Hung

r. 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 bicarbo

servative 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

suspicion is that natron, as used by the Egyptians, was a mixture of biborate of soda, caustic soda,

a, 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,

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, i

e 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:

nce 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 a

e 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 a

as the Egyptians practised, then filling the cavities with aromatic powders, frequently washing and anointing

hey 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

ch Blumenbach possessed, weighed only 7.5 lb., though the dried skeleto

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

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; ma

tory I can discover but few links t

mency 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

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 b

anner 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 Preparin

his book with many plates, more than half of which are in all respects foreign to his subje

tise on the Manner of Stuffing and Preserving Animals and Skins." He

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

e of taxidermy, and in a short time surpassed all those who had e

h have published any work which treats of the

é 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 collectio

ll 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 unit

eum 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 in

modern improvements in modelling and mounting, contains a mass of - for that day - valuable elementary information. In fact, the French and

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 wer

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 a

notable being by Swainson, Brown, and that eccentric genius Waterton, whom we may call the pioneer of our present system

ed 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

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

ndance 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

ugh 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 inte

hool 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 st

TICAL T

y 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