THE EVENING STAR — DECEMBER 28, 1905
The Mermaid
The revival of the sea serpent tales and theories naturally brings to mind that other marine curiosity so often mentioned in connection with the sea serpent—namely, the mermaid. Many stories are told of this remarkable creature, not only by ancient but by comparatively modern writers and travelers.
Of course, such superstitions were not to be let pass by those unscrupulous and scheming individuals who are ever ready to use the credulity to their own benefit. Thus, to say nothing of the impostures constantly practiced at fairs and by traveling show people, a striking instance of this kind occurred not many years ago in London. A mermaid was exhibited in a leading street at the west end of the town. A pretty round fee was charged for admission, and the dupes were shown a strange-looking object in a glass case which was unblushingly declared to be a mermaid. But the imposture was too gross to last long. As the result of a law suit which arose over the profits that accrued from the exhibition, it was ascertained to be the dried skin of the head and shoulders of a monkey attached by a glutinous matter to the dried skin of a fish of the salmon kind, and the whole was stuffed and highly varnished, the better to deceive the eye.
In a pamphlet communicated to the Royal Society in 1676 by one Thomas Stover, “an ingenious chirurgeon”
