PRESERVATIVE SOAPS, POWDERS, ETC. 71 



" Maunders' Treasury of N'atural History," is, by a fine irony, 

 entitled Bullock's " Preservative " Powder : 



No. 7. — Bulloch's Preservative Powder. 



Arsenic, lib. 

 Burnt alum, lib. 

 Tanners' bark 21b. 



Camphor, ilb. 

 Tincture of musk, |oz. 



" Mix tlie whole thorouglily, and after reducing it to a powder 

 pass it througli a sieve. Keep in close tin canisters. This 

 powder is more particularly adapted to fill up incisions made in 

 the naked parts of quadrupeds and the skulls of large birds. 

 It has been strongly recommended to us, but, being perfectly 

 satisfied with our own, we have never tried it." With regard 

 to the foregoing composition I have a few words to say, which 

 are these, that the reason I have copied it is that I have 

 met with it in more books than one, and I wish therefore to call 

 special attention to it, that it may be labelled "Dangerous," 

 and that anyone using it will do so at his peril. Fancy 

 shaking arsenic up in a sieve, and afterwards dusting it in 

 con amore ! Really, if people will use poisons, and others 

 put themselves to considerable pains to invent the most deadly 

 compounds for them, is it not criminal carelessness that such 

 things should be published without a word of warning as to 

 their character or effects ? 



Powders, as a rule, being made of astringents, dry the skin 

 too quickly (especially if a bird is being operated on) to 

 perfectly shape the specimen. As they are useful, however, 

 to fill up and quickly dry cavities in the wings, and such like, 

 of large birds, &c., and in some cases even to prepare a skin 

 for future stuffing, I will give a powder of my own composition, 

 the chief point of merit of which consists in its being harmless 

 to the user, and also that it has been tried on a large bird's skin, 

 which it so efEectaally preserved and toughened that, eighteen 

 months afterwards, it was relaxed and stuffed up better than 

 the usual run of made skins : 



No. 8. — Browne's Preservative Powder. 



Pare tannin, loz. I Camphor, loz. 



Eed pepper, loz. j Burnt alum, 8oz. 



Pound and thoroughly mix, and keep in stoppered bottles or canisters. 



