Directions: The soap should be the best quality of laundry soap, and of such composition that it can be reduced with water to any degree of thinness. Soap which becomes like jelly when melted will not answer, and should never be used.
Slice the soap and melt it in a small quantity of water over a slow fire, stirring sufficiently to prevent its burning. When melted add the potash, and stir in the powdered arsenic. Next add the camphor, which should be dissolved in the alcohol at the beginning of the operation. Stir the mass thoroughly, boil it down to the consistency of thick molasses, and pour it into an earthen or wooden jar to cool and harden. Stir it occasionally while cooling to prevent the arsenic from settling at the bottom. When cold it should be like lard or butter. For use, mix a small quantity with water until it resembles buttermilk, and apply with a common paint-brush.
The prices charged for the manufactured article by chemists who make arsenical soap to sell are out of all proportion to the cost and labor involved, and every taxidermist who uses much of it should by all means manufacture his own supply.
Hendley's Enamel Varnish.—Take equal parts of ether and alcohol, mix them, and add one-third as much gun-cotton. To every gill of this mixture add six drops of olive-oil to give elasticity. It is a good plan to keep two bottles, one containing the varnish ready for use, and the other containing the proper mixture of ether, alcohol and olive oil, to use in thinning the varnish when it gets too thick. This is a very superior varnish being absolutely colorless, and of high gloss.
The Wickersheimer Solution for the Preservation of Fleshy Objects Entire.—
| Alum | 500 | grains. |
| Salt | 125 | " |
| Saltpetre | 60 | " |
| Potash | 300 | " |
| Arsenic trioxide (white arsenic) | 100 | " |
Dissolve in one quart of boiling water. Cool and filter, and for every quart of solution add four quarts of glycerine and one quart of alcohol. Immerse the objects to be preserved in this solution, and keep them in it. It is but little else than our old familiar friend, the salt-and-alum bath, with enough glycerine added to prevent the excess of alum from unduly hardening and shriveling the specimens.
Composition for Use in Modeling Tongues, Mouths, and in General Fancy-Work.—"Procure 3 pounds white glue, 1 pint raw linseed oil, and 1 pound of resin. Heat the oil and resin, then add hot glue and stir thoroughly. Thicken with Paris white until the mixture has the proper consistency to mould when warm. This composition soon dries, becomes very hard, and can be colored or gilded. Fancy decorations of any design can readily be made from moulds of plaster or wood, and be glued on to shields and cases, thereby saving the expense of carving. The above is my own composition, which I have successfully employed for many years."—(J.H. Batty.)
Composition for Snow Scenes.—"Crush burnt alum with a roller, and remove small lumps. Add frosting, which has been pulverized in a mortar to the proper degree of fineness."—(Batty.)
Varnish Cutter (to remove old varnish from antlers, teeth, wood, or from the surface of an old oil-painting).—Take a sufficient quantity of eighty or ninety per cent alcohol, and slowly pour into it clear spirits of turpentine until the mixture becomes of a milky color. Then cork the bottle and shake the mixture thoroughly, and it is ready for use. Apply it with a small sponge, rub the surface vigorously for a moment only, then dip a rag in boiled linseed-oil and apply it to the cleaned surface. The varnish cutter acts almost instantly, and if left on too long the surface of a painting might be injured.