Writing about pastes reminds me that no taxidermist should be without a pot of flour paste, which is far better and more cleanly than gum or glue for sticking in loose feathers, etc.. For a small quantity, sufficient to fill a jam-pot, take
No. 31. — Flour Paste.
Good wheat flour, 2 oz.
Essence of cloves, 0.5 a teaspoonful.
Water, 0.5 pint.
Mix the flour with part of the water in a basin, being careful to crush out all the lumps, and work it up smoothly to the consistence of thick cream; add the remainder of the water, and boil for a few minutes in a saucepan. Turn out into a jam-pot, and when nearly cold stir in the essence of cloves; this latter gives an agreeable odour to the paste, is not poisonous, and preserves the paste indefinitely from turning mouldy. A few drops of carbolic acid may be used instead of the cloves; but in this case the pot must be labelled "Poison."
Strong gum water may be made from gum arabic, into which a little powdered white sugar is stirred. Essence of cloves prevents mould in this also, unless there be an excess of water.
A fine paste, useful for paper or photographic work, is made from rice-flour.
"Dextrine," in powder, is cheap and strong, easily soluble in cold water, but as a paste shows up on feathers, etc.., much more than wheat-flour paste.
Cement, for uniting broken bones or fossils, or to fix shells, etc.., on tablets, is, says the late Frank Buckland, made thus