Post Mortem Palace. All rest quietly in
company. Lions and lambs; dolphins, turtles,
and sharks are on the very best terms with
each other; eagles, hawks, swans, and pigeons
perch in harmony. Different portions of the
animal economy are also displayed. One case
contains skulls from all parts of the globe;
in another are brains of various creatures,
beautifully preserved, and abundant enough
to satiate the wildest phrenologist; a third
has stomachs sufficient to startle any number
of aldermen, or to outdo in capacity the
largest of luxurious corporations. The noblest
and the meanest of created things send each
their contribution; from the mammoth to the
mouse,—from man to the ape.

In one case are some illustrations of the
durability of the skin of different creatures,
and amongst others is a specimen of the
integument of the extinct animal giant, the
mammoth, discovered in the frozen soil of
Siberia, where it must have lain bound up in
its crystal prison doubtless not for hundreds,
but for thousands, of years. The story of its
discovery is told in the Catalogue, and is
worth repeating:—

"A Tungusian hunter and collector of fossil
ivory, who had migrated in 1799 to the
peninsula of Tamul, at the mouth of the
Lena, near the seventieth degree of north
latitude, one day perceived, amongst the
blocks of ice and frozen soil, a shapeless mass,
which in the following year was more
disengaged and showed two projecting parts.
In 1803, part of the ice between the earth
and the observed body—which was then
recognised as that of a mammoth, yielding the
tusks commonly found in the soil of that
coast—having melted more rapidly than the
rest, the enormous mass fell by its own weight
on a bank of sand. Of this, two Tungusians,
who accompanied Mr. Adams, the recorder of
the fact, were witnesses. In the month of
March, 1804, the discoverer came to his
mammoth, and having cut off the tusks,
exchanged them with a merchant for goods of
the value of fifty rubles. Two years afterwards,
or the seventh after the discovery of
the mammoth, Mr. Adams visited the spot,
and found the mammoth still in the same
place, but altogether mutilated: the Jakutski
of the neighbourhood had cut off the flesh,
with which they fed their dogs during the
scarcity. Wild beasts, such as white bears,
wolves, wolverines, and foxes, also fed upon
it, and the traces of their footsteps were seen
around. The skeleton, almost entirely cleared
of its flesh, remained whole, with the exception
of one fore-leg, probably dragged off by
the bears. The spine, with other parts of the
skeleton, still held together by the ligaments,
and by parts of the skin. The head was
covered with a dry skin; one of the ears,
well preserved, was furnished with a tuft of
hair. The point of the lower lip had been
gnawed; and the upper one, with the
proboscis, having been devoured, the molar teeth
could be perceived. The brain was still in
the cranium, but appeared dried up. The
parts least injured were one fore-foot and one
hind-foot; they were covered with skin, and
had still the sole attached. The skin, of
which about three-fourths were saved, was of
a dark grey colour, covered with a reddish
wool, and coarse long black hairs. The
dampness of the spot where the animal had lain so
long, had in some degree destroyed the hair.
The entire skeleton, from the fore-part of the
skull to the end of the mutilated tail, measured
sixteen feet four inches; its height was nine
feet four inches. The tusks measured along
the curve nine feet six inches, and in a
straight line, from the base to the point,
three feet seven inches.

"Mr. Adams collected the bones. He next
detached the skin on the side on which the
animal had lain, which was well preserved;
the weight of the skin was such, that ten
persons found great difficulty in transporting
it to the shore. After this, the ground was
dug in different places to ascertain whether
any of its bones were buried, but principally
to collect all the hairs which the white bears
had trod into the ground whilst devouring
the flesh, and more than thirty-six pounds'
weight of hair were thus recovered. The
tusks were re-purchased at Jakustk, and the
whole sent thence to St. Petersburgh, where
the skeleton is now mounted."

Very many heads and hands have contributed
to complete this museum. As its
name indicates, the founder of the collection
was the self-educated, self-elevated physiologist,
John Hunter, who, born to the condition
of a village carpenter, raised himself to the
foremost rank as an investigator of the laws
of Nature. Hunter did not accept as truth,
all that was told him; nor did he rest content
with what his predecessors had done or said;
but, intent upon the discovery of facts, he
went to work for himself. Animal and
vegetable products of all kinds were materials full of
interest to him; come whence they would, they
were made to contribute to his knowledge of
natural things; and when his skill and his
fame grew, and as skill and fame gave money
and power, both were used for the acquisition
of a larger stock of materials for observation.

During his lifetime he prepared and
accumulated a marvellous number of specimens;
and when his sudden death whilst attending
at St. George's Hospital, brought enemies and
friends alike to a recognition of his great
services to science, it was determined to buy
his museum, with funds provided by the
public purse, and to place its contents where
they might be ready for public reference.
The valuable charge was first offered to the
College of Physicians, and declined upon the
plea that they were too poor. It was next
offered to the College of Surgeons, and
accepted. The Government voted a portion
of the money necessary for building a museum,
the College finding the rest. Since then,