GELATIN:
French Gelatin.
The gelatin manufacturer buys from the button-makers and manufacturers of knife handles and bone articles generally, those parts of the bone that they cannot use, some of which are pieces 8 inches long by a half inch thick.
Bones gathered by the ragpickers furnish the strongest glue. The parings of skin, hide, etc., are from those portions of bullock hides, calf skins, etc., that cannot be made use of by the tanner, the heads, legs, etc.
The gelatin made by Coignet for the Pharmacie Centrale de France is made from skins procured from the tawers of Paris, who get it directly from the abattoirs, which is as much as to say that the material is guaranteed fresh and healthy, since these institutions are under rigid inspection and surveillance of government inspectors and medical men.
There is a gelatin or glue, used exclusively for joiners, inside carpenters, and ceiling makers (plafonneurs), called rabbit vermicelli, and derived from rabbit skins. As the first treatment of these skins is to saturate them with mercury bichloride, it is needless to say the product is not employed in pharmacy. {370}