Dressing and SorisNiNa Skins oe Fues as Leatheb. 



The art of tanning is, as I iDefore observed {vide Chapter I.), 

 of the highest antiquity, as systems which are now in vogue 

 must have been known — if even in a modified foiTQ — to the 

 ancients. We may roughly divide the operation of tanning 

 into two distinct classes : One which deals with skins without 

 the preservation of the fur, and which turns the skin so operated 

 upon into the material known as leather ; and the other in which 

 we seek to preserve the fur or hair in its normal position, at the 

 same time dressing or rendering soft the actual skin itself.* 



The first process — the making of leather — does not lie within 

 the scope of this work ; suffice it to say, that the hair or fur is first 

 removed by lime, &c., and that after the skin is scraped it is 

 treated variously with oak bark, valonia, sumach, divi-divi, &c. ; 

 it is a long and tedious process, and certainly does not lie 

 within the province of a taxidermist to attempt ;t and though it 

 is possible for a tanner to preserve the fur with the skin, yet the 

 attempt is undesirable, by reason of the false or unnatural colour 

 it permanently gives the fur — totally destroying the character 

 of a light one, and heightening or lowering, as the case may 

 be, the tint of a dark fur. 



To obviate all these difficulties and disagreeable effects, a 

 totally distinct method of dressing skins has been devised, 



* Some time during 1874, Sir. Joseph Tussaud read a paper before the Society of Arts, in 

 ■which he described an ingenious method of removing the fur of any animal to an aitiiicial 

 *' backmg" of india-rubber or Hannel, whilst the original skin was utilised as leather. 



t Technical works on Tanning are "Tanning, Curi7ing, and Leather -dressing," by F. 

 Dussance: "The Ai'ts ot Tanning, Currying, and Leather-dressing," from the Frencu of 

 J. de i'ontenelle and F. Maiepeyre. 



