298 Miscellaneous. Chapt. xxiii. 



quarter of an hour. Then add the arsenic flour and well mix it. 

 Avoid the fumes, they are banefid. Pound the camphor in a little 

 spirits of wine, and add it when the soap mixture is lukewarm, and 

 the carbonate of potash when it is cold. 



This recipe is in a convenient form for Indians, if it is 

 remembered that the unit of weight, a tola, is exactly the weight 

 of a rupee. It is equivalent to 180 grains. 



I add another recipe, however, in English terms : — 



Arsenic. . . . . . . . . . 2 pounds. 



English bar soap . . . . . . . . 2 „ 



Suit of tartar .. .. .. .. .. 12 ounces. 



Camphor .. .. .. .. ..12 „ 



Cut the soap into thin slices; put it, with a pint of water, into a 

 pot over a gentle fire, stir it with a wooden spatula ; when the 

 soap is dissolved, add the salts of tartar, take them off the fire, add 

 the arsenic, and, when lukewarm, the powdered camphor, mixing 

 the whole well together. 



Put the compound into a conveniently wide mouthed jar, or 

 glazed earthen pot, taking care to secure it well with bladder and 

 twine. 



I have given the above recipes for making arsenical soap, 

 because it is what I was taught to use as the only and accepted 

 preparation fur preserving fish. I should not, however, fail to add 

 a caution about its use, which I may as well give in the words of 

 that eminent naturalist Waterton, as they have frightened me into 

 trying his solution of corrosive sublimate. He lias evidently found 

 it answer with snakes; I conclude, therefore, that it ought to be 

 equally successful with fish. In the cases in which 1 have already 

 tried it I have, as yet, no fault to find. 



" A preparation of arsenic is frequently used ; but it is very 

 "dangerous, and sometimes attended with lamentable conse- 

 " quences. I knew a naturalist, by name Howe, in Cayenne, in 

 " French Guiana, who bad lost sixteen of his teeth. He kept them 

 "in a box, and showed them tome. On opening the lid, ' these 

 "'fine teeth' said he 'once belonged to my jaws, they all dropped 

 "'nut by my making use of the sav<m arsenitique for preserving 

 " ' tin' -kins nf animals.' " 



[, too, have sacrificed sound teeth on this shrine, and lately 

 came across a gamekeeper who was, of course, strong, and active, 



