In 1799, the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne received an unusual package from Australia

"The cask containing the two specimens … reached Newcastle late in 1799, transported from quayside to the Society's rooms by a woman servant. She carried it on her head and, by mischance, the bottom of the cask gave way, dousing her with pungent spirits. But her dismay was reportedly the greater when, looking down, she saw not only the small chunky wombat, but the remains of 'a strange creature, half bird, half beast, lying at her feet'."

— Thomas Bewick

The specimens had been sent to England by John Hunter the Governor of the colony of New South Wales. His accompanying letter described his first sighting of the mysterious "half-bird half-beast".

The river was very still on the curve where the eucalyptus dips towards the water. The light shaded near late afternoon and twilight would soon darken the outline of the wooded bank and the flat landscape stretching to the horizon. Bubbles broke the surface of the water. A small brown head, its sleek furred cap glided silently in the river's flow.

As you can imagine, my esteemed colleague, I wondered what the aborigine was spearing in the lake near Hawkesbury River close to Sidney. I soon discovered the answer. A small creature fought for its life with such force that it caught its assailant with its spur and seemed to cause much pain. I have taken the liberty of posting the skin of the specimen to you for your study. It is preserved in a keg of spirits with another antipodal beast. I send it to your keeping for the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Bewick working from the skin went on to produce this engraving for the 1807 edition of his book A General History of Quadrupeds.

Is found in the fresh water lakes . . . about the size of a small Cat, it chiefly frequents the banks of the lakes; its bill is very similar to that of a Duck, and it probably feeds in muddy places in the same way; its eyes are very small; it has four short legs; the fore legs are shorter than those of the hind, and their webs spread considerably beyond the claws, which enables it to swim with great ease; the hind legs are also webbed, and the claws are long and sharp. They are frequently seen on the surface of the water, where they blow like a turtle: their tail is thick, short and very fat.

The same year another specimen was received at the British Museum in London and examined by George Shaw an assistant keeper at the museum and a member of the Royal Society. Shaw was astonished by the platypus (as he named it) but he also seriously wondered about its authenticity, confessing that it was "impossible not to entertain some doubts as to the genuine nature of the animal".

Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extra-ordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped. So accurate is the similitude, that, at first view, it naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means ... nor is it without the most minute and rigid examination that we can persuade ourselves of its being the real beak or snout of a quadruped.

Shaw had good reason for his initial scepticism. Although the platypus had come from an impeccable source — the governor of colony of New South Wales, himself an amateur naturalist with connections to the Royal Society — the fact remained that this animal really did look like a sewn together amalgam of various species. During this period many new and remarkable species were being discovered but the scientists needed to exercise caution because the fabrication of bizarre creatures and mythical beasts for sale to the credulous was also commonplace.

In Asia there was a long history of animal forgery going back to the Middle Ages. Even Marco Polo who crossed the Indian Ocean in the thirteenth century complained about this disreputable practice.

I may tell you moreover that when people bring home pygmies which they allege to come from India, 'tis all a lie and a cheat. For those little men, as they call them, are manufactured on this Island, and I will tell you how.

You see there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is very small, and has a face just like a man's. They take these, and pluck out all the hair except the hair of the beard and on the breast, and then they dry them and stuff them and daub them with saffron and other things until they look like men. But you see it is all a cheat; for nowhere in India nor anywhere else in the world were there ever men seen so small as these pretended pygmies. [1]

— Marco Polo, Travels Volume 2. Chapter IX. Concerning the Island of Java the Less (Sumatra)

The surgeon Robert Knox [2] who founded a school of anatomy in Edinburgh put the scientists' quandary this way

It is well known that the specimens of this extraordinary animal first brought to Europe were considered by many as impositions. They reached England by vessels which had navigated the Indian seas, a circumstance in itself sufficient to rouse the suspicions of the scientific naturalist, aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers; in short, the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art; but these conjectures were immediately dispelled by an appeal to anatomy (emphasis added).

— Robert Knox, 1823

As mentioned by Marco Polo, the bodies of monkeys were the most commonly used in the manufacture of these exotic beasts. Most popular amongst the sailors who bought them were "mermaids" made by stitching together a small monkey and the tail of a fish. Hundreds of these artificial abominations were taken home to Europe and it become to part of the job of naturalists evaluate and, if possible, debunk them.

Even as late as 1858, the surgeon and naturalist Francis T Buckland was asked to investigate a specimen of a "merman" on exhibition in London.

In the back parlor of the White Hart, Vinecourt, Spitalfields, high and dry upon a deal board, lay this wonderful object-hideous enough to excite the wonder of the credulous, and curious enough to afford a treat to the naturalist.

Such a thing as a merman or mermaid of course never really existed; I was therefore most anxious to examine its composition, which, by the kindness of the landlady (a remarkably civil woman), who removed tile glass which covered her treasure, I was enabled to do. The creature (a gentleman, not a lady specimen of the tribe) was from three to four feet long. The upper part of its body was composed of the head, arms and trunk of a monkey, and the lower part of a fish, which appeared to me to be a common hake; and the head was really a wonderful composition: the parchment like, hideous ears stood well forward, the skin of the nose when soft had been moulded into a decided specimen of "the snub," the forehead was wrinkled into a frown, and the mouth " grinned a ghastly grin;" the curled lips partly concealed a row of teeth which in the upper jaw were of a conical form and sharp-pointed, taken probably from the head of the hake, whose body formed the lower part of our specimen. The lower jaw contained these fish's teeth, but conspicuously in front was inserted a human incisor or front tooth, and a vacant cavity showed that there once had been a pair of them. These were probably placed there to show the "real human nature" of the monster. The head had once been covered with hair; but visitors, anxious to obtain a lock of a merman's hair, had so plucked his unfortunate wig that only a few scattered hairs remained; the relic-seekers are now, therefore, ignorantly treasuring in their cabinets hairs from the pate of an old red monkey.

The "Fejee" Mermaid–now part of the collection of the Peabody

Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

The eyes, sunk deep in the sockets, are formed of round bits of leather, with the pupils marked in black paint; and altogether the features of the merman are those of a disagreeable old man, who was trying not to laugh. There is no portrait of the merman tribe in "Bell's Anatomy of Expression," and a portrait of our Spitalfields friend ought really to find a place in the next edition.

The arms, long, shrivelled and gaunt, were placed in an easy position, as though the owner was kissing its hand to the spectator, and the soft parts having receded from the nails left them long and projecting, like a bird's claws. The chest of the monkey had hardly been big enough to hold the shoulders of the fish, so it is extended with a cage of wire, which also gives the appearance of ribs. The waist is very much larger than the chest proper; from which fact we may learn that the fashion of tight-lacing was not derived from the mermaid family.

The fish (neatly stuffed) was placed with its belly outermost, so that its back fin formed a continuation with the back of the monkey, The junction was cleverly managed, and the tail part was gracefully curved to the left, like the heraldic pictures we sometimes see on coats of arms, &c. The merman was placed on his back; but his proper position is evidently erect, for if he stood up on his tail he would have a much more imposing appearance. The history of it is, that it was bought at a sale of old furniture, &c., of a certain old Mr. Ellis, of whom all I could learn was, that "he bought and sold for the East India Company;" but whether he bought and sold tea, silk or mermaids, I could not ascertain.

Buckland critically examined this and another matching specimen and decided that both had probably produced by a London taxidermist. He was no doubt also relieved that by this time the public's interest in mermaid exotica was declining.

Mermaids were, I believe, not very uncommon exhibitions in days gone by; and they may be still seen occasionally at country fairs, &c. The good folks of England are getting every year more and more educated, and mermaids do not take so well now as formerly, when pack-horses performed tile part of railways, and horn-books composed the village library.

However, as the masterful PT Barnum amply demonstrated to him, with the right amount of marketing and showmanship there was still plenty of money to be extracted from mugs interested in mermaids.

I attended Mr. Barnum's lecture on "Humbug," and the following are my notes of what he said of his celebrated Fejee Mermaid. He defined "Humbug" as "The art of attracting attention, whether the article is good or bad;" and his mermaid story exemplifies his theory. He bought the mermaid, which was being exhibited in Watson's Coffee-house, London, for a shilling, and then he (Barnum) showed it in his museum for nothing, and yet made money. He had an elaborate and really beautiful picture painted, which he hung outside the museum; the picture represented three lovely creatures with beautiful long hair, the traditional looking-glass and comb, &c.disporting themselves in a fairy-like submarine grotto; but he did not say his mermaid was like those in the picture. Attracted by the picture and notice, "A mermaid is added to the museum, —No extra charge," thousands paid to go in, and then they saw a "hideous, shrivelled-up old mummy; and if people were not satisfied with the mermaid, they had their shilling's worth in looking at the rest of the museum." Mr. Barnum confessed that he did not pursue his studies in Natural History too far, or he might learn too much.

[1] Marco Polo's pygmies - of course, in this case there's always the (very remote) possibility that the Indonesian merchants had actually been catching, stuffing and selling specimens of Homo floresiensis instead!

[2] As sidenote, Robert Knox's "appeal to anatomy" actually went quite a bit further than was usual.

Only a few years after wrting about the platypus, the good doctor became embroiled in a sensational murder trial. He had been so keen to obtain dead bodies for dissection at his anatomy school that he often used the services of grave robbers or "resurrectionists". He paid his suppliers good money and a premium for the freshest copses (no questions asked). This prompted a pair of enterprising Irishmen named of Burke and Hare to start a profitable business murdering people directly (usually vagrants or prostitutes) in order to fulfil Knox's requirements. The pair managed to commit 16 murders over a period of two years before being caught.

While Knox was never directly implicated in the murders, there is reason to think that he knew what was going on and in at least instance he attempted to obscure the evidence of one of the murders.

Rather than lying low Burke and Hare became even more careless and murdered a well known children's entertainer, James Wilson, known as 'Daft Jamie'. He had a deformed foot and was instantly recognised by paying students at Professor Knox's anatomy class. Knox strongly denied that the subject was James Wilson but immediately began his lecture by dissecting his face.

The public furore, however, that was sparked by the trial was such that he was forced to resign his post at the school that he founded and leave Edinburgh for good.

The case became known infamously as the West Point Murders and was suitably immortalised in a children's nursery rhyme.

Up the close and down the stair,
In the house with Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox, the boy who buys the beef.

Burke and Hare,
Fell down the stair,
With a body in a box,
Going to Dr. Knox.

   

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