THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
167 
ratlior advised to try his skill in tlie first 
place on a boy or a woman. A little soap 
or oil should be rubbed over the skin, and 
as the mouth will have to be kept close 
shut throughout the operation, quills or 
fetraw.s must be provided for insertion in 
Fig. 4. — POT-LID IN MOULD FOR BUST. 
the nostrils, that respiration may not be 
stopped. The plaster should be mixed 
with warm water. The sensation when 
liquid plaster is poured over the face is 
by no means an agreeable one, and this 
precaution will tend to the comfort of the 
patient; besides, as it will lessen the 
shock it will lessen the danger of any in- 
voluntary movement of the muscles of the 
face, and that these should remain rigid 
till the plaster has set, is essential to suc- 
cess. 
During the ten minutes or so which 
must elapse before the mould is hard 
enough to be removed, the time will pass 
tediously for the person operated upon, 
and though there will be no real difficulty 
in taking it off, if the instructions given 
be carefully followed, some little pain 
may be occasioned ; for any stray hairs 
which have become imbedded in the plas- 
ter will probably be pulled out, and will 
come off with it. 
In a cast thus taken, the eyes will of 
course be closed, and the expression will 
be one of sleep. This is sometimes 
altered afterwards, if the person who 
^takes the cast has some little skill in 
modelling, the eyes can be carved and 
made to appear open; and the remainder 
of the head and bust can be modelled to 
the mask from nature. But a work so 
treated is rarely satisfactory. It is really 
better and more valuable as a memento 
when kept as taken, and looks well it 
mounted on a slab of wood, covered with 
dark velvet. 
Talcing a mask in this manner after 
death, though a melancholy, is a much 
easier task. Under such circumstances 
no danger of failure is to be dreatled. 
That impatience on the one hand, and 
hurry on the other, which act as disturb- 
ing influences in casting from life, have 
not now to be taken into account. A mask 
taken after death forms a sad but precious 
memorial, and is an invaluable help to 
the modeller if a posthumous bust should 
ever be required. 
Fig. 5. 
Such small animals as are cased in fur 
or feathers are difficult subjects for the 
caster, but fishes and reptiles are well 
adapted for his purposes. These lower 
organizations can, with little trouble, be 
arranged in life-like positions and 
moulded, a little oil being first brushed 
over them. Sand can either be packed 
beneath them, so as to allow the mould to 
be taken in one piece, or they can be half 
buried in that material, and their upper 
halves first moulded. They can then be 
