White soap, 2 lb.
Cut the soap into small slices as thin as possible, put them into a pot over a gentle fire with very little water, stirring it often with a wooden spoon; when dissolved, add the salts of tartar and powdered chalk; take it off the fire, add the arsenic, and stir the whole gently; lastly, put in the camphor, which must first be pounded in a mortar with a little spirits of wine. When the whole is properly mixed together it will have the consistence of paste. It may be preserved in tin or earthenware pots, well closed and cautiously labelled. When wanted for use it must be diluted with a little cold water to the consistence of clear broth; the pot may be covered with a lid of pasteboard, having a hole for the passage of the brush, by which the liquor is applied. (There appears in this formula to be an error in giving 12 oz. of Salts of tartar, which should, I think, be reduced to 2 oz.; also the proportion, of arsenic and soap is clearly excessive with regard to the quantity of the lime or chalk.)
Swainson appears to have used a composition somewhat different from the preceding. He describes it as follows:
No. 2. — Swainson's Arsenical Soap.
Arsenic, 1 oz.
Distilled water, 6 drms.
White soap, 1 oz
Camphor, 2 drms.
Carbonate of potash, 1 drm.
This mixture should be kept in small tin boxes; when it is to be used moisten a camel-hair pencil with any kind of spirituous liquor, and with it make a lather from the soap, which is to be applied to the inner surface of all parts of the skin, and also to such bones as may not be removed.