Advert in the Morning Chronicle, 29th October 1822.
THE MERMAID.
We are indebted to the master of one of his Majesty's ships of war for the drawing of the Mermaid, as exhibited at Cape Town, whence the annexed wood-cut is taken.--
Our readers are aware of our scepticism upon this subject; but at any rate it is a curious point in natural history to have the picture of whatever has been brought forward as a proof of the existence of this disputed creature; and we certainly feel infinitely indebted to the kindness which has enabled us to present this print from the testimony of an eye-witness, whose situation (though perhaps not a sufficient naturalist to detect a nice imposture) places him above the suspicion of either ignorant credulity or erroneous representation. The account given of this extraordinary animal by its captors is, that it was caught on the coast of Japan; and our correspondent mentions that its face is frightfully distorted, as if it had died in excruciating pain.
[..] Since we prepared the above notice, its subject, the Mermaid, has arrived in London; and we rejoice that the public will have an opportunity of forming a judgment upon it. Immediately on being passed at the Custom-house, it is, we are informed, to be shown to his Majesty, and afterwards exhibited. From an inspection, it may be added to the preceding particulars and print, that the length is two feet ten inches; that the lower extremity resembles the salmon, with the tail rather more curved up than in our sketch, and the fins more natural than our engraver has represented them; that the upper half is like the Ourang Outang; and that the proprietor paid five thousand dollars for his "beautiful maid" in India.
From the Liverpool Mercury, October 4th, 1822.
A Mermaid, if we are to place implicit credit in the presence of the figure, is now exhibiting in St. James's-street. The head is the size of a baboon's and is thinly covered with strong black hair; the nose bears a closer resemblance to the human form, so likewise do the chin, lips, fingers, nails and teeth, which are full and perfect. The resemblance to the human form ceases immediately under the breasts, and beneath them are placed two horizontal fins; then comes the mermaid's tail, exactly that of the salmon species-- this part of the body is quite scaly, and furnished with six fins. The height of the animal is rather more than two feet; it is shrivelled and dried like a mummy, and the mode of preservation is on that account not so well calculated as if it had been kept in spirits to satisfy by the evidence of external appearances. There is certainly no perceptible addition or juncture of discordanct parts for any purpose of deception; and undoubtedly if there be any getting up in the figure, it is not of recent date, for the whole appearance of the surface is worn, in parts worm-eaten, and exactly that of a dried and long-shrivelled mummy.
The head bears no proportion to the rest of the body; from the deep furrows and collapsed appearance of the muscles, the cheeks must have been very fleshy; the same observation, but not in an equal degree, applies to the breasts. There is only one way of effectually demonstrating the real character of the animal, and that is by dissection; how far that can be accomplished consistently with the restoration of the figure for the purpose of exhibition, is another question. It is for anatomists to speak upon the internal appearances of the body -- the formation of the back-bone is palpable, and resembles that of the human figure.
There appears a peculiarity about the shoulders, as if the insertion were in the manner of a ball and socket, and not like the human scapula; but we repeat, dissection can alone furnish a complete and satisfactory solution of a subject which has been so long deemed the theme of idle conjecture or fabulous invention.
The present proprietor, it is said, obtained the animal in Batavia, from the Captain of a Dutch vessel, who had purchased it in China -- it was then in its present condition.
From The Times, October 23rd, 1822.
It appears, by the following article from the last Literary Gazette, that there is some reason to doubt whether the creature, of which we gave an engraved representation in the Mercury of October 4, be really a genuine production of nature, or a motley creature formed out of various animals. This is not at all impossible, as we recollect to have read of an imposition being practised upon the public by a man who exhibited some nondescript monster, which was detected by the celebrated naturalist, Linnaeus. -- Edits. Mercury.
"We have again carefully inspected this creature, as minutely as its glass-casing permits. Our opinion is fixed that it is a composition; a most ingenious one, we grant, but still nothing beyond the admirably put-together members of various animals. The extraordinary skill of Chinese and Japanese in executing such deceptions is notorious, and we have no doubt but that the mermaid is a manufacture from the shore of the Indian Sea, where it has been pretended it was caught.
We are not of those, who, because they happen not to have had direct proof of the existence of any extraordinary natural phenomenon, push scepticism to the extreme, and deny its possibility. The depths of the sea, in all probability, from various chemical and philosophical causes, contain animals unknown to its surface waters, or if ever, rarely seen by human eye. But when a creature is presented to us, having no other organization but that which is suitable to a medium always open to our observation, it in the first instance excites suspicion that only one individual of the species should be discovered and obtained.
When knowledge was more limited, the stories of mermaids seen in distant quarters might be credited by the many and not entirely disbelieved by the few; but now, when European and especially British commerce fills every corner of the earth with men of observation and science, the unique becomes the incredicble, and we receive with far greater doubt the apparition of such anomalies as the present. It is curious that though medical men seem in general to regard this creature as a possible production of nature, no naturalist of any ability credits it after five minutes' observation! This may perhaps be accounted for by their acquaintance with the parts of distinct animals, of which, it appears, the mermaid is composed.
The cheeks of the blue-faced ape, the canine teeth, the simian upper body, and the tail of the fish, are all familiar to them in less complex combinations, and they pronounce at once that the whole is an imposture. And such is our settled conviction. Let us, however, in justice to the owner of this 'sea-monster,' repeat our opinion, that he is by no means privy to the imposition. It is affirmed, that almost all the eastern world, including Sir Thomas Raffles (a person of no mean judgment) held the mermaid to be genuine; and that its purchaseer believed it to be so, is witnessed not only by the sum he gave for it, but by the fact of his having exhibited it originally in a way the most likely to court detection, if false, namely, by suspending it by a string fastened to the middle of the back.
We lament, therefore, to be compelled, in justice to ourselves, to pronounce the judgment we have done:-- but being thoroughly convinced that this lusus naturae is not natural, we are bound to say so, and to tell our readers, that if they go to see it (as it is well worth a visit) it must be to observe how admirably such a deception can be executed.
'It is a jest, and all things show it,
We thought so once, and now we know it.' "
From the Liverpool Mercury, November 1st, 1822.
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