TAXIDERMY. 113 



found in Paris, and still better at Nevers, where' 

 they are cheaper than elsewhere, and clippings or 

 fragments of looking glasses, which we melt in the 

 lamp, into a sort of small cylinder like the enamel, 

 before we use them. We take care in melting 

 these pieces of glass, to free them from all spots 

 and globules of air. We can procure these glass 

 cylinders ready made at some glass manufactories. 



When furnished with every thing, we put the 

 table in an obscure place, that the light from else- 

 where may not destroy that of the lamp, which is 

 alone sufficient to be able to operate with certainty. 

 The lamp well lighted, we direct the pipe of the 

 bellows towards the middle of the wick, which we 

 scatter a little in that part, and procure a clear and 

 blueish flame, to which we expose the enamel we 

 wish to melt. If this flame be not clear and lively, 

 the colours of the enamel are apt to change, and 

 the operation fails. Practice alone teaches the pro- 

 per degree of flame ; but it is generally better to 

 expose the enamel we wish to melt to the extremity 

 of the jet of the flame, where it never burns, and 

 frequently melts more easily than in the centre. 

 Small eyes being the least difficult, we always begin 

 to learn upon them. For these we take a small 

 iron wire, an inch and a half in length, and hold 

 one of the extremities in the round pincers, whilst 

 we approach the other to the fire, to which we ex- 

 pose, at the same time, the enamel of the colour we 



