ARSENICAL SOAPS AND POWDERS 71 



his soap ; and I observe that the artists in the Zoological Laboratory 

 at Paris carefully bend or turn down the points of the various wires, 

 after they have inserted them (as they easily straighten them again 

 with the fingers, if requisite), lest, by pricking their fingers, the arsenic 

 might do them serious injury. M. Valenciennes, however, assures me 

 that it is indispensably necessary for the traveller to anoint the naked 

 parts of the legs of birds killed in hot climates. 



It will be seen by this that the author, without intending 

 it, deals what should have been a death-blow to arsenic, for M. 

 Nicholas and the Abb6 Manesse were educated and clever 

 taxidermists ; and the fact of Dufresne not being successful tells 

 nothing, for we may see men at the present day unsuccessful 

 in the preservation of anything by any medium, whilst others 

 are successful with chalk alone ; and with regard to the user of 

 arsenical soap for forty years, or the user of large quantities, 

 not being injured by it, it is well known that there are men so 

 constituted that it is impossible to injure them in any other 

 way than with a sledge- or steam-hammer. 



One of the most dangerous soaps is to be found in a 

 little book professedly written by a well-known professional 

 taxidermist, who may not, however, be the author of what he 

 calls " the best known preservative for skins of all kinds," 

 which is the following : — 



55. — "Arsenical and Mercurial Soap (Gardner, Bird, Quadruped, 

 and Fish Presenting, first edition, N.D., p. 9) 



Arsenic . . . . . . 6 oz. 



Corrosive sublimate 

 Yellow soap 

 Camphor . 

 Spirits of wine 



3 ,, 

 2 „ 

 I ., 

 \ pint." 



To say nothing of the danger of putting upon a fire, 

 however " slow," such inflammable substances as camphor and 

 spirits of wine in a " pipkin," the using of a " preservative " 



