Recipe for Making Arsenical Soap.

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.—

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.

To Prevent Mould in Boxes of Specimens.—Take some carbolic acid crystals (forty cents per pound), melt them in the sun, and with the resulting liquid acid paint the entire inside of each box, and, if possible, pack contents with naphthaline crystals. This is efficacious in boxes of small skins of birds and mammals, of insects and the like, even in hot climates, but of course does not apply to boxes of large specimens which contain a great amount of moisture.

To Polish Hard Wood.—1st. Rub the surface thoroughly with raw linseed-oil, turpentine, and powdered pumice-stone. 2d. Give the surface a smooth coat of shellac. 3d. When dry, take fine sand-paper and go over it rather lightly. 4th. Give the surface a good coat of hard oil finish (a white varnish), and let it harden. 5th. When quite dry rub down with raw oil, turpentine, and pumice-stone, to soften the gloss of the varnish, and give a polish instead. For rubbing, use a piece of hair-cloth, or clean burlaps.

Cement for Gumming Labels to Minerals and Shells.—Pulverized gum Arabic, 4 ounces; pulverized white sugar, 2 ounces; starch, 4 drachms.

Dissolve all separately in as little water as convenient. Dissolve starch in cold water, then stir it into sugar water, and then that mixture into the gum water. Boil with great care, as burning will spoil the whole. It is well to use a tin vessel raised from the bottom of another vessel containing water. After the starch ceases to make the mixture look milky it is cooked, but at least an hour's time will be required. Keep in large mouthed, tightly corked bottles, or when done pour into a tray covered with strong paper, spreading it evenly over the paper, and allow it to dry. When dry enough, moisten back of paper and remove it from the gum, dry again thoroughly, break into fragments and preserve for use in wide-mouth stoppered jar.—(Southwick & Jenck's "Random Notes.")

Arsenic Water (for poisoning mammal skins, etc.).—Water, 4 quarts; arsenic, 4 ounces. Mix, stir and boil until the arsenic is all taken up.

The Treatment of Furs and Peltries.—Inasmuch as the readers of this book may sometime desire to preserve a few mammal skins as furs, or to be made up as rugs, I will quote entire, verbatim et literatim, a circular of instructions lately issued by one of the largest fur houses in this country, Messrs. William Macnaughtan's Sons, of New York City. Observe particularly, however, that skins prepared thus are utterly worthless to the taxidermist and the scientific museum. They are good for furs only:

"Directions for Fur Collectors and Trappers, to Insure High Prices, Ready Sales, and Save from Losses through Ignorance.—'Cased:' Ermine, fisher, fox, lynx, martin, mink, opossum, otter, skunk, must be 'cased,' that is, not cut open. In skinning, cut at the rump, and turn the skin inside out (like a glove) over the body of the animal, leaving the pelt side out. Then after scraping, cleaning, and drying, turn the skin back again while it is soft and easily managed, leaving the fur side out. Then put a thin board inside the skin, cut the natural shape of it, stretching the skin to its fullest extent, but not so much as to make the fur thin. Too much stretching spreads the fur over a large surface, and makes it thin and lacking in richness. A liberal supply of good boards should be kept on hand. Never use bent sticks, bows, or anything irregular in shape or that yields. When the above are 'opened' they have a Southern appearance that lessens the value greatly.

"'Open:' badger, bear, beaver, cats, raccoon, wolves, wolverine, must be 'open;' that is, cut open, up the belly from rump to head. After scraping, cleaning, and drying, stretch a uniformly oblong shape, to the fullest extent of the skin, but not so much as to make the fur thin. When thoroughly dry, trim off legs, shanks, flippers, and any little pieces that spoil the appearance of skin.

"Exceptions: Skunk, long stripe, such as come from the Territories and sections of California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, cut open and stretch oblong, as explained. Skunk, with the white stripe (or any portion) shaved out, blackened, or tampered with, must be collected at half price. Opossum from Indian Territory, cut open, and stretch oblong as explained. Chop off the tails where the fur ends, as they make opossum look poorly and lessen their value. Beaver are sometimes stretched almost round, but appear very much better stretched oblong. Value by the skin, never by the pound. They rapidly lose heavily in weight. They bring most sold by the skin. Muskrats must be 'cased,' but with fur side in. Chop off the tails as explained. Skin at the nose and make rumps square. Round tails have less value and do not sell well. Muskrats must not be injured by shooting or spearing. Trap them.

"Skins that have dried without proper care can be treated same as fresh, green skins. Otherwise they have no value. Dissolve a handful of common salt in a pail of fresh water, and apply frequently with brush or rag (to pelt side only, as it spoils appearance to wet the fur) until the pelt becomes perfectly soft. Then handle as explained. The same with 'open' skins.

"Cautions: Do not cure with alum or salt. It injures them for dressing and spoils their sale. Do not dry skins at a fire, or in the sun, or in smoke. It often 'burns' them; when they then spoil, and ruin on being dressed. Dry in the open air where shady. Meaty skins often 'burn.' The meat and fat on them heats and 'burns' them, and they then go to pieces and rot on being dressed. Too much warmth curls and spoils the top fur or hair. Never stuff furs of any kind; dry and stretch as explained. Do not stretch out the noses and make them pointed. It gives a Southern appearance and lessens value. Do not cut off heads, ears, or noses, or mutilate in any way. It lessens value and injures sales. Remove as much of bone from tail as possible, otherwise the tail rots.

"Trapping: Fur-bearing animals must not be killed till they have at least a fair growth of fur. Stop trapping as soon in early spring as the fur begins to shed or becomes thin, or a little faded. These too early or too late caught furs are a disgrace to fur trappers and collectors, and a wasteful, worthless slaughter."