The times., 1899-11-19
ON SCIENCE
Attempts to Sell Spurious Speei-
mems TO Museum Experts.


Against ny CurntOrs-Hon1es That
PerpIex the Authorities From Time
TO Time a Georgia SwindIe
and an Alleged Pctrifed Man.
The scientists who serve the people OF
New York in the capacity of curators at the
American Museum of Natural History, in
Manhattan Square. stand between the pub
lie and shrewd impostors who appear at
frequent intervals with new contributions
to science. Here are exhibitions of una
dorned human nature unknown TO the out
side world. And such is the experience of
every public museum they become the OBJ
jective points Of involved schemes and con
fidence games, set in motion by men who
know something Of the rudiments of the
science in which they traffic. One Of the
curators recalled some recent instances and
chatted OF them last week while the past
ing of labels went on:
'Hoaxes are interesting when you can
deal with them reminiscently but when
engaged in the running investigation and
hasty decision they wear and peFplex to
tht punt VI tAdSpCidtlOI- EAlidOI
scientific specimens are offered us constant
ly by people armed with credentials and
we stand in imminent danger of being
done or Of losing a choice thing The
competition between museums is as keen
as anywhere in trade, and the person who
has a good specimen can secure offers
from all the museums before he yields pos
session. The time in which our decision
must be given by mail CT in person is often
quite limited. and the whole experience
easily becomes nerve wrecking. Offers are
usually made by letter, and there the de-
sCription is so careless, so inexact, so un-
technical. and unscientifc that we have
but the haziest impression. The chance
always exists that a priceless specimen is
being offered by a pumpkin and that the
museum can secure it for a song. The
writer may live thousand miles away and
be unable to travel or unwilling to ship
what he considers worth fortune.
The Fraud Unearthed
People at a distance are constantly un-
earthing something they don't understand
and writing US to come out and explain.
and incidentally buy the curio. Desire for
scientific information and avarice are
strangely mixed in these epistles. One
man in Georgia wTcte that he pIowed
up the shelton of a man nine feet long and
accompanied his letter with pho ographs
and aftldavits The evidence was conyinc-
ing, and the museum sent representative
to the ground. There the skeleton lay in
a followed out enclosure, guarded night
and day by the dicoyerer and his sons.
who appeared to have turned their backs
forever on plow handles. The investiga-
tor began his tests with the skull. and
worked downward to the feet half the
county filling the field on every side. The
skull was of ordinary size and undoubtedly
genuine But it was not the skull of a
ninefoot man, belonging rather to a man
OF average height But the scientist re-
fected that prehistoric man might have
had a small head. On the other hand. his
brain capacity was probably small while
his head was large in bony structure.
The tint of the entire skeleton seemed
the proper and uniform yellow shade but
the student worked on every inch of the
joints and ribs. In the centre of several
Of the ribs the composition seemed less
. firm than elsewhere. but ON scraping these
sections with his knife the color did not
change. But each of the ribs was discov-
cred to have the same weakness al rela-
lively the same point, as though bone de-
composition had set in from a given trans
verse line. The elbow joint lay beside the
ribs, which had been cTudely arranged. The
knife scraping continued, and again the
variation in solidity was observed by the
trained touch. A drop of acid burned its
! way inward with a spuTter and the truth
was revealed The bones OF a man Of
ordinary length had been elongated till
! they would have served for a nine-foot
man. This had been done ny saving ribs
and joints in two and filling in with
section OF plaster of paris tinted uniformly
| to resemble the color of the human bone.
( The scientist in his righteous wrath broke
a shin bone over the plowshare, and the
bone parted evenly at the point where the
saving had been done. Showing this con-
elusive evidence to his wide mouthed audi
ence, the scientist expressed himself freely
! TO the ingenious farmer.
"Ou another occasion we were cal ed
upon to investigate a pretended pertifisd
man, whose flesh and tissue had not gone
the way of all earthly flesh, but had bcea
turned into stone promptly. The whole
affair had fshy cast but to investigate
il took little time and no money. The
| specimen was stored in a barn Under 10 K
and key. and the scientist was sworn to
secrecy by the Snowman The affair as
brought to the light and proved to hay e
the outline of a muscular fellow with a
british cast of countenance On one test
was used. The scientist directed d bit and
brace into the pit of this antediluvian
pUgilist and bored and bored in a direc-
tiOn both upward and downward. Sud
denly the bit gritted ominously on metal.
and the basic fact was reached at once.
The construction had been built on a bar
of iron, and was q gigantic hoax This
fact was impaired to the promoter OF this
curio. and the investigation was a an end
Birds Eggs SwindIerA.
The rascals who operate in birds eggs
are among the cleverest Dodo eggs are
offered us with a degree of regularity.
sometimes being actually brought to the
Museum There isn't one chance in a bill
lion that the egg in question is a dCdo's
but its outlandish color prevents it from
being anything else and no man poses as
an authority on dodo's eggs. We can only
look reprOachfully at the huckster.
But the work of one young man who
operated few years ago was brilliant in
| conception and execution. When exposed
he proved to be the son of one of the most
| ncted college professors in the country.
| He perfected the art of coloring eggs and
of altering their markings to such an ex-
tent that he hoodwinked many Ornitholo-
| gists and museum men. His eggs may
| even now be floating under false colors.
| BY the use of chemicals he was able to
! transform pigeons eggs and others with
! a white surface into eggs of excessive rGr-
: ity and high commercial value. He de-
| ceived some Of the most skillful ornith-
oIogists in New York and his operations
| extended to Europe. But success brought
! overcoufidence, and a careless bit OF work
! ended his career. He was never punished,
| because no scientist is willing 20 admit
that he has been overtaken in fault.