﻿PROCESS FOR. PRESERVATION. 



265 



ing composition called arsenic soap.* We can recommend 

 this soap from long experience ; the birds we preserved 

 with it near twenty years ago in Brazil are as perfect 

 now as they were the first day they were skinned, 

 We cannot say so much of a different composition so 

 strongly recommended by an amateur t, who seems to 

 think it a modern discovery : spirits of wine and coro. 

 sive sublimate,, however, has been in use in this country, 

 as a preservative against insects, time out of mind, and 

 it is strongly recommended by sir James Smith ; J it is 

 probably a safeguard against some insects, but is un- 

 questionably inferior to the arsenic soap, originally 

 invented, we believe, by the French. 



(221.) There are two ways in use of opening a 

 bird ; the first is by lifting up one of the wings and 

 making an incision down the whole length of its side, 

 from the shoulder joint to that of the thigh : the 

 second is by parting the feathers in front and making 

 the incision down the middle of the breast and belly, 

 beginning at the top of the breast, and cutting in a 

 straight line as far as the vent. The former is certainly 

 the best, because the wing conceals the subsequent 

 sewing up of the skin, and gives the bird, in front, an 

 appearance of plumpness and smoothness which we can 

 scarcely have by any other method ; it is, however, the 

 most difficult to inexperienced hands, and, therefore, 



* Arsenici Oxydi gi, ; Saponis 3i- ; Potassa? Carbonatis 3vi. j Aqua Satu- 

 rata 3vi. ; Camphora? 3ij. 



t I made the following experiment with Mr. Waterton's composition 

 when in Brazil : — The ants, which swarmed in a room I inhabited at Per- 

 nambuco, had committed great devastation among the prepared insects 

 and birds. While. preserving one of the latter, I cut off a piece of the 

 flesh, and, after saturating it with the composition, laid it in the path 

 which led to one of their holes. The little creatures seemed at first to 

 be somewhat suspicious of its wholesomeness ; but, after walking about 

 and upon it, and examining it with their antenna?, they seemed to pro- 

 nounce a favourable verdict, for one and all began dragging it away to the 

 entrance of their nest, where it soon disappeared beneath the earthen 

 floor. The experiment was repeated three times, and the same result fol- 

 lowed. The mixture had been brought from England, and I had no 

 reason to believe it was defective in the preparation. After this trial I 

 determined on using the arsenic soap; naturally concluding that if ants 

 would devour the soaked flesh of a bird, they would not scruple to attack 

 its skin, which could only be washed with the liquor on the inner side. 



X Introduction to Botany. 



