Taxidermy

Arsenic was long a preservative in the taxidermic process, despite criticism of the method as unnecessarily dangerous. But at least one contemporary scholar has suggested that metabolized arsenic extended the lives of late 19th-century taxidermists by decades.

• By Jack Denton

Since the mid-1800s, hunting trophies—taxidermied remains of wild animals—have served as symbolic proof of one’s "manliness."

• By Lisa Wade