240 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



for anything wet or damp, such as fishes or fungi, but if these 

 are dry it will copy them ; such things as snakes and most 

 reptiles can be cast admirably, and many copies delivered, by 

 this process, which is used by plasterers, and modellers in 

 plaster, clay, and wax, to get copies for centres of ceilings, 

 trusses, brackets, busts, and statuary. It comes away so per- 

 fectly from undercuts and complicated corners by reason of its 

 elasticity and toughness, that, to make an exact copy — say of 

 a small bust or an apple — it is, in some cases, merely necessary 

 to cover the object with the glue, and, when cold, to split the 

 mould all the way down one side, pull it open, take out the 

 object, and fill its place with liquid plaster. 



There is no need in similar objects to adopt the compli- 

 cated and useless process described at p. 213 of Practical 

 Taxidermy and perpetuated by Mr. Hornaday ; ^ a description 

 of how the glue mould of a large vertebra of a fossil reptile was 

 managed will show the greater simplicity of method and con- 

 sequent saving of time. 



The vertebra, having been oiled, was supported, on one of 

 the faces of its centrum, by a small pedestal of clay, about an 

 inch or less in diameter, raising it about the same distance from 

 a piece of glass upon which it rested on the casting-table. 

 The vertebra was then surrounded by a square casting -box 

 well oiled inside — as was also the glass on which it rested, 

 — and a sufficient quantity of modelling-glue (Formula 95) was 

 poured in to completely envelop the specimen. When cold, 

 the mould was split and the vertebra extracted, and where it 

 had rested upon the clay a hole was formed, through which 

 (after the inside of the mould had been painted with oil-paint 

 — red and white lead mixed with plenty of " driers ") the plaster 

 was subsequently poured, and thus reproduced the original, as 

 shown by Fig. 8, Plate XVI. In some cases it will be found 

 ^ Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting, etc., pp. 265-267. 



