504? PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION 



The articles necessary for mounting animals are, according to 

 Dufresne, an assortment of iron wire of different sizes ; flax, or 

 cotton ; scalpels, scissors, and forceps of various sizes ; a ham- 

 mer, files, and brushes, and an assortment of eyes in enamel. 

 The arsenical poap is composed of the following ingredients : 



Camphor, 5 ounces. 



Arsenic in powder, - 2 Ibs. 



White soap, - 2 Ibs. 



Salt of tartar, - 12 ounces. 



Chalk in powder, - 4 ounces. 



The soap is cut in thin slices, and melted over a gentle fire 

 in a small quantity of water, care being taken to stir it often. 

 When all is dissolved, the salt of tartar and powdered chalk is 

 added. It is then taken from the fire, the arsenic is added, and 

 the whole gently triturated. Lastly, the camphor reduced to 

 powder in a mortar with a little spirit of wine is mixed with the 

 previous ingredients ; and the whole is then put aside in con- 

 venient pots for use. When wanted, the necessary quantity is 

 put into another vessel, and diluted to a proper consistency 

 with cold water. Gum Paste, made of gum-arabic, in the pro- 

 portion of one pound to two ounces of white sugar-candy, and 

 a spoonful of starch or hair powder, is also of use in the mount- 

 ing of animals. M. Dufresne also uses a paper paste, formed 

 of the pulp of unsized paper pounded in a mortar and dried, 

 with the addition of melted gum-arabic. 



Skeletons of animals are prepared when under the size of a 

 fox, by macerating the body after the skin, muscles, intes- 

 tines, &c. are removed, in water, to which a little quicklime has 

 been added. After two or three days maceration, it is extended 

 on a table, and the fragments of flesh scraped off with a scal- 

 pel, taking particular care to preserve all the ligaments which 

 attach the bones together. 'These ligaments when dried are in 

 general sufficient to keep the skeleton upright ; but when this 

 is not the case, an iron wire passed through or under the verte- 

 bral column fixes the head to the cervical vertebras at the ante- 

 rior end ; and two forks of similar wire support the extremi- 

 ties. In larger animals, the bones are separated at the joints 

 before maceration, whitened in the sun after being properly 

 cleaned, and afterwards fixed in thdr natural order by wires 



