66 PEACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



Arsenic is simply a drier of animal tissue to a certain extent, 

 but so are hundreds of other agents not so dangerous. It 

 is also perfectly useless as a scarecrow or poison to those betes 

 noirs of the taxidermist, the larvae of the various clothes and fur- 

 eating moths of the genus Tinea, or the larvss of Dermestes 

 lardarius, murinus, and other museum beetles. They simply 

 laugh arsenic to scorn ; indeed, I believe, like the Styrian arsenic 

 eaters, they fatten on it. I could give many instances. Of 

 course, when you point out to a brother taxidermist — rival, I 

 mean ; there are no brothers in art — the fact that somehow this 

 arsenical paste does not work the wonders claimed for it, he 

 replies, " Oh ! ah ! yes ! that specimen, I now recollect, was done 

 by a very careless man I employed ; he never half painted the 

 skin." All nonsense ! Men, as well as masters, lay the 

 " preservative " on as thickly as they can. Verhum sap. ! A 

 great outcry is being made at the present day as to arsenical 

 wall papers and ladies' dresses — ^very properly so ; but did it 

 never strike any taxidermist — they must read the papers some- 

 times, even if not scientific men — that if it was dangerous to 

 live in a room, the paper of which contains a barely appreciable 

 quantity of arsenic, it was also dangerous to work all day 

 in a shop amid hundreds of specimens actually reeking with 

 arsenic, and giving it off when dry, and when handled, in the 

 form of dust ? Painted on the skin while wet is bad enough ; 

 but what shall we say to those — well, we will not use harsh 

 terms — who calmly tell you that they always use dry arsenic. 

 Incredible as the statement may appear to the scientist, yet it 

 is true that I have seen a man plunge his hand in the most 

 matter-of-fact way into a box containing dry arsenic, and coolly 

 proceed to dust it on a skin. What is the consequence of this 

 to the user of wet or diy arsenical preparations ? Coughs, 

 colds, chronic bronchitis, soreness of the lips and nose, ugly 

 ulcers, brittleness of nails, and partial or complete paralysis. I 

 knew a man who formerly used dry arsenic, whose constitution 

 was thoroughly broken up by it. Again, an amateur of long 

 standing called on me some time since, paralyzed in one hand — 

 the doctors could make nothing of him. I said at once, " You 

 have been using quantities of arsenic, and probably dry ?" Much 

 astonished, he said " Yes ; " and he had never mentioned this 



