64 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



and with subjects where turpentine is objectionable ; for 

 instance, in the Leicester Museum, whenever any suspicious 

 traces of insects appear in the large wall-cases, where the 

 specimen cannot be readily femoved or cleaned after the use of 

 turpentine, a copious spray of benzoline is directed upon all the 

 objects in that case, and over all the rockwork, grasses, and 

 mosses ; for it must not be supposed that fur and feathers are 

 the only abiding-places of museum enemies ; they lurk, often 

 for a number of years unsuspected, within the crevices of the 

 rockwork, and within peat and mosses, by which, indeed, they 

 are often introduced. Hence all natural grasses and mosses 

 used as accessories should be plunged either into turpentine or 

 benzoline, and dried in the air for a short time afterwards. 



DIVISION II 



PRESERVATIVES OF THE SECOND CLASS — SOAPS, POWDERS, 



ETC. 



These are preservatives which are subsidiary to previous 

 treatment — the removal of the flesh of the animal, — and may 

 be gathered together under the comprehensive and suggestive 

 title of " cures " — the " stuffer's " term for all preservative soaps, 

 powders, and washes to be applied to the skin of any animal 

 after the removal of the body. 



The earliest known and used, and the most objectionable, 

 are " cures " which have arsenical bases, and in a former work 

 by the present author the ill effects of arsenic upon the 

 human subject, and its uselessness save as an efficient drier, 

 were pointed out, and the evidence /;'<? and con gone into fully, 

 and the opinion of Waterton was given, who wrote : — " It 

 is dangerous to the operator and inefficient as a preservative." 

 Since that time the evidence has been accumulating, and not 

 in favour of arsenic, and no amount of assertions, such as that 



