224 REVIEW PRACTICAX. TAXIDERMY. 



page 79 that he advocates the use of peat and plaster of Paris, which latter 

 is sure to absorb whatever moisture may remain in the skull, skin, or case, 

 and ultimately crumble to pieces, so spoiling the specimens in which it 

 has been employed. A better method, where the skin is of a very greasy 

 nature, as in dogs, &o., is to mix plaster of Paris with sufficient boiled 

 linseed oil to form a thick putty, which resists all damp, is capable of 

 much finger manipulation, and dries as hard as a stone, besides being non- 

 poisonous and possessing the requisite lightness which, in the ordinary 

 lead putty are still desiderata. 



With regard to plaster casts of fi-uit, &c., (pages 107 and 

 108,) a much neater and readier method of making the mould is 

 to mix a sufficient quantity of bees' wax with rozin in a pipkin 

 over a slow fire. It must be used whilst just lukewarm, by either 

 dipping the fruit, say an apple, until it is sufficiently coated, or by painting 

 the surface of the apple until sufficient adheres to form a good, strong 

 coating. When cold, (dipping in cold water will readily make it so,) 

 the whole can be cut through with a sharp knife, the halves of the fruit 

 come out easily, and a perfect mould in two halves is thus obtained. 

 Fasten the halves of the mould together with string, and smear a little 

 of the warm material over the joint to hold it together, and cast your 

 model in the usual way with liquid plaster of Paris. When set, place in 

 a little warm water, when the mould easily strips off, leaving a model of 

 the most perfect kind, and at a small expense, for the mould can be melted 

 up and used over and over again. 



The remainder of the book contains many ingenious suggestions, 

 which the practical taxidermist, as weU as the enterprising 

 amateur, would do weU to carry out. Altogether, we must 

 congratulate ourselves and Mr. Browne on the effect his book is likely 

 to have upon taxidermy in general. The rubbish which for many 

 years we have endured at the hands of self-styled taxidermists will, we 

 hope, vanish before a more enhghtened and careful manipulation of those 

 beautiful creatures whose lives are so often sacrificed to the vanity of the 

 collector, the sportsman's bag, and the follies of fashion. We sincerely 

 hope that Mr. Browne's efforts to bring first-class specimens of his art 

 into the houses of town dwellers will have a beneficial and humanising 

 influence, and that his book, wliich in this particular branch of literature 

 has no rival, wiU be well and widelyrcad. — Wright Wilson, F.L.S., &c. 



Report of the Rughij School Natural History Society for 1S77. Rugby : 



W. BlLLINGTON. 1878. 

 This is a realty interesting, well-written, well-printed, and capitally 

 illustrated volume. It is, we think, the twelfth report of the Society, 

 (this should be stated on the cover,) and is not behind any of its prede- 

 cessors in the additions which it makes to the Natural History of the 

 neighbourhood of Rugby, or in the evidence which it affords of the 

 thorough and interesting manner in which Natural Science is taught in 

 the great School with which the Society is connected. Of fifteen 

 papers read during the year, nine are by px-eseut members of the School. 



