ARSENICAL SOAPS AND POWDERS 69 



" Cut the soap into small slices as thin as possible ; put them 

 into a pot over a gentle fire with very little water, stirring it 

 often with a wooden spoon ; when dissolved, add the salts of 

 tartar and powdered chalk : take it off the fire, add the arsenic, 

 and stir the whole gently : lastly, put in the camphor, which 

 must first be pounded in a mortar with a little spirits of wine. 

 When the whole is properly mixed together, it will have the 

 consistence of paste. It may be preserved in tin or earthen- 

 ware pots well closed, and cautiously labelled. When wanted 

 for use, it must be diluted with a little cold water to the con- 

 sistence of clear broth : the pot may be covered with a lid of 

 pasteboard, having a hole for the passage of the brush by 

 which the liquor is applied." 



The next is described by its inventor as follows :- — 



54. — "Swainson's Arseniated Soap {The Naturalists' Guide, p. 63, 

 and Taxidermy, p. 28) 

 Arsenic . . . . . i 02. 



White soap 

 Carbonate of potash 

 Distilled water 

 Camphor . 



I drachm 

 6 drachms 



2 



" This mixture should be kept in small tin boxes : when it 

 is to be used, moisten a camel's-hair pencil with any kind of 

 spirituous liquor, and with it make a lather from the soap, which 

 is to be applied to the inner surface of all parts of the skin, and 

 also to such bones as may not be removed." 



One must, nevertheless, admire Swainson, who, in an age 

 which could by no means do without arsenic in one form or 

 another, was courageous enough to pen the following lines, 

 which should have brought some inventor into the field, to 

 replace by a harmless preparation the unfortunate invention of 

 B6coeur, whose soap taxidermists of all nations have used, 

 without giving themselves the trouble to inquire, " Is it more 



