ARSENICAL SOAPS AND POWDERS 65 



"So-and-so has used arsenic for a great number of years, and 

 has used it dry, dusting it on," will ever convince any sane 

 person that arsenic is harmless, nay, a laudable article of diet. 

 It is astonishing to find Mr. Hornaday, one of the chief taxi- 

 dermists of America, writing as follows: ^ — 



Arsenical soap is by all odds the safest poison that can possibly be 

 used. It gives off no poisonous fumes whatsoever, its presence in the 

 mouth, nose, or eyes is always detected instantly, and the worst that it 

 ever does is to get into a cut or under the ends of the finger-nails of 

 the careless taxidermist, and niake a festering sore which is well in a 

 few days — a purely local ill. 



Dry arsenic is more injurious. It sometimes poisons the fingers of 

 a careless operator, and if it is inhaled in the form of dust, the effect 

 may be serious. A few persons are very susceptible to the effects of 

 dry arsenic, others are not. If the blood is in a healthy condition, 

 there is little to fear from it, except through carelessness. I have 

 used, all told, probably more than a hundred and fifty pounds of 

 arsenic in various forms, and never had an hour's illness in con- 

 sequence, nor anything more serious than a sore finger. 



On the other hand, in a less pretentious but exceedingly 

 useful manual by another American taxidermist, are to be 

 found the following sensible remarks by one who is frank 

 enough to confess his former mistake : ^ — ■ 



Taxidermists for many years have made use of arsenic in soma form 

 as a preservative ; and in the first edition of my Naturalists^ Guide, I 

 recommended the use of it dry, stating that I did not think it injurious 

 if not actually eaten. I have, however, since had abundant cause to 

 change my opinion in this respect, and now pronounce it a dangerous 

 poison. Not one person in fifty can handle the requisite quantity of 

 arsenic necessary to preserve specimens for any length of time, with- 

 out feeling the effects of it. For a long time I was poisoned by it, 

 but attributed it to the noxious gases arising from birds that had been 

 kept too long. It is possible that the poison from arsenic with which 



' Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting, pp. 344, 345. 

 '^ Manual of Taxidermy, by C. J. Maynard, p. 44. 



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