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Show 312 MR. O. THOMAS ON SPECIMENS FORMERLY [May 3, Now in reference to these serious statements, it may be observed that Seba's great collection consisted of mammals, birds, reptiles, scorpions, shells, echinoderms, and many other invertebrates, and might, therefore, easily be " en grande partie deterioree," especially as regards the softer and more destructible invertebrates, and yet leave the majority of the mammals unhurt; while, as regards the Royal Antelope (" notre Spiniger " ) , of course the accidental opening or leakage of a single bottle would imply the destruction of its contents. But except for Temminck's bare statement, and it is by no means certain that he really knew much about the condition of " toute la collection," he only having obtained " quelques bocaux," there seems to be no reason whatever that specimens preserved as these are in hermetically sealed bottles and in good preserving fluid should be really seriously deteriorated merely by the lapse of time. Certainly, judging by the present condition of the Lidth de Jeude collection, there seems to be no reason against their having been in the bottles they now are for the past 160 years, or, if untouched, for their remaining very much in their present condition for centuries more. Of other references to this collection, at this time or later, I can find no trace. Probably it got into the hands of one or several successive private and scientifically unknown collectors of curiosities before coming into the possession of Prof. Lidth de Jeude. Of the latter's museum, we only know what is stated in the preface to his sale-catalogue of 1858. In this he utters a pathetic lament at being forced to part with his collection, the result of half a century's labour. This period would carry back the commencement of his collecting to 1808, a date very near that when some of the Seba specimens were certainly still in existence, as we know from Temminck. Among the collections and even " Musees entiers " which he acquired during the half-century were those of " Mr. le Baron van der Capellen, ancien Gouvemeur des Indes Orientales, Mr. van Klinkenberg, amateur zele a Utrecht, Messrs. Muller, Draak, etc." Of these gentlemen the first would not have been likely to possess a general collection, of the last two I know nothing; but of the second, the most likely sounding of all, thanks to the kind researches of Dr. F. A. Jentink, of the Leyden Museum, we know that his full name was Gysbert Johannes van Klinkenberg, that he set up as an apothecary in Utrecht in 1802, that he had large Natural History collections, and that these were sold by auction on Nov. 8, 1841. The majority of the specimens were bought by Prof. Lidth de Jeude, but as this was done privately no sale-catalogue of them was printed. It may be noted, however, that among the books sold1 at that sale there were two copies of Seba's 'Thesaurus,' rather a cumbrous work for an ordinary collector to have in duplicate, if he had not had some special reason for possessing them. 1 I must sincerely thank Dr. Jentink for the care and trouble that he has taken in helping m e to trace out the history of this collection, and, among other things, for having lent m e a copy of this rare sale-catalogue, as well as a marked copy of Lidth de Jeude's own catalogue. |
