October 21, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



227 



will neutralize the effect of the pathogenic ptomai'ne producing 

 each infectious disease. To relate here the details would carry us 

 too far into the domain of organic chemistry. I may indicate, 

 however, one other method, which, while having the same object 

 in view, promises great success. Take, for instance, tubercular 

 consumption. There are some animals that cannot be inoculated 

 with the tubercle bacilli, because they are protected by nature 

 against them. The question is. What substance in the blood — 

 we believe it to be in the blood serum, that part of the blood which 

 remains after the removal of the red and white corpuscles — of 

 these animals prevents the development of the tubercular malady ? 

 If that substance can be isolated, the victory is won. Koch has 

 taken some of the blood serum of an animal thus protected, and 

 l)y transfusion brought it into the circulation of an animal 

 specially predisposed to and inoculated with the disease. He suc- 

 ceeded in thus greatly diminishing the severity of the latter. 



Professor Lister, on returning from his last visit to Koch in 

 Berlin, said to the English physicians listening to his report, among 

 other things, the following: " But while my lips are sealed with 

 reference to the details, that much may I say, that before a few 

 more years are passed the world will stand aghast at the discoveries 

 made in Berlin. I have seen rats in the agony of lock-jaw, after 

 the subcutaneous injection of a drop of fluid, within a few hours 

 run about in perfect health ! " 



We are undoubtedly on the threshold of a new era, on the eve 

 of a revolution, the greatest medical science has ever seen. The 

 morning of a bright future has dawned ; the light is ascending the 

 horizon, and will soon shed its lustre from the meridian ! 



HOW TO MOUNr BIRDS WITHOUT REMOVING THE 

 SKELETON. 



BY ULYSSES O. COX. 



To some, no doubt, it will seem useless to attempt to mount 

 more than the skin of a bird ; but, having had some experience 

 with both methods, I wish to state what has been my success 

 with the new one. The process is about the same that has been 

 described by others, but the soap' preservative is my own inven- 

 tion. 



A pair of pointed scissors, scalpel, tenaculum hook, file, wire- 

 cutters, several hooks of different sizes made of stiff wire, two 

 pairs of forceps, one of the ordinary style and another with about 

 one-eighth of an inch of each point bent out at right angles, are 

 the tools that should be at hand. A dry poison should be pre- 

 pared of one part arsenic and one part powdered alum. An ar- 

 senical soap should be made as follows: — 

 Group one. 



Dry arsenic. 

 Cake soap, any good, 

 Potassium carbonate. 

 Air-slaked lime, sifted, 



2oz. 

 2oz. 

 ioz. 

 ioz. 



Group two. 



• Corrosive sublimate, 3dms. 



Cyanide of potassium, Sdms. 

 Two or three moth balls, or one dram of camphor. 



Put the first group in a vessel with enough water to dissolve it 

 to the consistency of thick cream. Heat and stir until thoroughly 

 dissolved. Dissolve the second group in another vessel in cold 

 water, and when the first group is about cold stir in the second. 

 Put the soap iu well-corked bottles or cans. The cyanide of 

 potassium, moth balls, and camphor, are not used for their pre- 

 servative properties but to insure the specimens against moths or 

 other insects. 



A quantity of cotton, tow, wire of different sizes, and plaster 

 of Paris should be at hand. For trial, select a medium sized 

 bird, say a jay or a robin, and clean off all dirt and blood-spots by 

 first washing in clean water then drying with plaster of Paris. 

 With the tenaculum hook catch the white coat of the eyeball and 

 with a gentle pull remove the eye. Wipe the socket dry. Re- 

 move the other ball in the same way. With a wire, punch 

 through the skull in the back part of each eye-socket and stir up 



the brain well. Fill the eye-socket with the dry preservative and 

 stir it into the brain cavity. If careful, the brain can be so well 

 poisoned thus that it will dry nicely. Fill the eye-sockets with 

 cotton and proceed to the mouth. The forceps with bent points 

 are for use in holding up the eyelids while putting in the glass 

 eyes. Remove the tongue, and with it as much of the trachea 

 and oe9ophagus as possible. Poison the mouth and throat well 

 with the arsenical soap, and then sprinkle in a little of the pow- 

 der. If there are any evident fleshy parts, chop them a little 

 with the scalpel. 



Open the skin from the tip of the sternum to the vent and push 

 it back as far as you can conveniently. Remove the large mus- 

 cles of the breast, working down to the wing; this can be done 

 with a few strokes. Cut off as much of the loose flesh from the 

 legs as you can conveniently. Open the abdominal cavity and 

 with a stout hook remove the intestines. All the feathers may 

 be protected from blood by taking a piece of tin and cutting in 

 one side of it a deep U-shaped notch. The points of the U will 

 fit up on each side of the bird. Several sizes of these tins will be 

 found convenient. The intestines may be drawn out on the tin 

 and removed. Wipe out the cavity with cotton, paint well with 

 the soap, and then sprinkle it with the powder. Chop up the 

 flesh at the root of the tail, and work the poison into it. After 

 having thoroughly poisoned it, fill the body cavity with tow. 

 Tow is preferable to cotton because wires are easily passed through 

 it. Turn out the neck, remove the crop, oesophagus, and wind- 

 pipe, hack up the flesh on the neck, and then thoroughly paint 

 the skin and neck with the soap, and sprinkle with the powder. 

 Your success depends on the care with which you put on the 

 poison. Prepare two wires, one about six inches longer than the 

 bird from head to toe, the other about the length of the bird. 

 Pass the long wire into the bottom of one foot, up alongside the 

 bones of the leg, just under the skin, through the body cavity, 

 up alongside the neck, and out through the skull. Insert the 

 second wire in the other foot in a similar way, but allow it to end 

 in some of the bones of the body cavity. Place a little cotton in 

 the space occupied by the crop, and begin at the neck to sew up 

 the incision in the skin. Sew for a short distance, then fill the 

 cavity underneath with tow or cotton. Be sure to fill it up well, 

 for the parts will shrink some. Continue sewing until the in- 

 cision is entirely closed. 



With the bird on its back, spread out the wings and make an 

 incision along the bones of each, press aside the skin, and poison 

 the flesh well. If the bird is small, the powder is sufficient; if 

 large, the soap should be used ; and, when possible, some of the 

 flesh might be removed. The bird is now ready to be set up, and 

 here the method is no different from others. It will be found 

 that, instead of the feathers on the back being displaced and ruf- 

 fled, they are nice and smooth. A wire passed through the bend 

 of one wing, through the bird and out through the bend of the 

 other wing, then both ends bent over, will hold the wings in 

 place. 



As to time, I find that it takes me about as long to prepare a 

 specimen this way as any, but my specimens are very much 

 nicer. When the bird is poised, the tail and wings fastened, and 

 the glass eyes set, there is little more to be done. 



I have purposely placed some specimens thus prepared with 

 some moth-infected birds. They have been there all summer, 

 and, so far, are sound. If properly stuffed the specimens do not 

 shrink and appear smaller than the original. If the muscles are 

 well cut apart, the bird will dry just as poised. The largest bird 

 I have tried to preserve in this manner is a great blue heron 

 (Ardea virescens), and it dried nicely. I have several owls thus 

 preserved. In the owls I took the brain out through the eye- 

 socket. While large birds can be preserved in this manner, the 

 method is better suited to small and medium-sized ones. Warblers 

 and wrens, birds with very tender skins, are thus easily pre- 

 served. In such small birds as the warblers, only the pectoral 

 muscle need be removed, but the others must be well chopped up 

 and poisoned with the soap. Specimens for study, not mounted, 

 can be nicely preserved by this process, and they are very dur- 

 able. 



State Normal School, Mantato, Minn. 



