70 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



hurtful to the user than to the creatures it is intended to 

 destroy ? " He says' : — 



Great care, however, must be taken in using this, as well as all 

 other similar compositions. If the least particle gets between the skin 

 and the nail, and is not immediately removed, it separates both much 

 lower down than their natural limits, creates great pain, and renders 

 the fingers very tender. We should therefore recommend the operator 

 to wash his hands and clean his nails immediately after he has finished 

 applying it to his specimens. 



On the other hand, in a translation of a French work,^ the 

 author says, in speaking of M. Nicholas : — 



Like the Abb6 Manesse, he renounces poisons as dangerous to the 

 preparers, and insufficient to avert the destructive effects of insects on 

 zoological collections. He pretends that by his soapy pomatum and 

 tanning liquor, stuffed animals are preserved a long time. The drugs 

 which compose his preparations do not injure those who use them. 

 We allow that this is not the case with the metallic soap, and supposing 

 M. Nicholas's preservative equally efficacious, we should certainly give 

 it the preference, but we have tried it without success. We are there- 

 fore obhged to retain the arsenical soap : M. Dufresne has employed 

 it for forty years, and has never been inconvenienced by it. We may 

 also instance Le Vaillant, Mang6, Desmoulins, and especially Bdcceur, 

 for no one in France has mounted so many birds as the latter. 



Again : ^ — 



It is necessary to use the oil of turpentine for the exterior of large 

 quadrupeds sxiAfish; first, because the metallic soap cannot penetrate; 

 and secondly, because prudence does not allow us to employ it on the 

 surface of any animal, not even on the parts free from hair. 



In a footnote to this the author says : — 



M. Dufresne means the exterior surface only, which is so much 

 handled in the stuffing as to make it too dangerous to anoint it with 



^ Bowdich («'.«. Dufresne), Taxidermy, p. ii. 

 ^ Op. cit., pp. 13, 14. 



