>>I have also heard the theory about arsenic being commonly used in the 19th
>>Century, especially on bird skins.
>>Is there a way of telling the age of a mounted skin though?
>
>This is no theory, but a fact.  Arsenic was routinely used to treat bird
>and mammal skins until well into this century.  There is a documented case
>of an ornithologist who died of arsenic poisoning.  In my institution, we do

Fred Funk, the taxidermist at the California Academy of Sciences and
the instructor of a taxidermy class I took there many years ago,
told us that for many years insanity was considered an occupational
hazard of professional taxidermists because of the arsenic.  The effect
is much the same as that of mercury on felt-makers; the "Mad Hatter" is
not funny when you realize he was a victim of occupational poisoning.

According to Fred, both of the previous taxidermists at CAS went
mad at an early age.  They were a father-and-son team -- Frank Tose
did North American Hall around 1918, and his son Cecil Tose did
African Hall in the 1930's.  Faced with these facts, one wonders
why anyone would have chosen that career in those days.  One also
has a lot more respect for the "tatty old skins" in early dioramas,
because one realizes at what human cost they were produced.

Now, fortunately, there are other chemicals.  In our class we used
a protein-denaturant called (I think) Edulan-U, which had been
developed by the wool industry as a moth-proofer.  One of my favorite
memories of CAS was watching our taxidermist in African Hall applying
moth-proofing solution to the colobus monkeys: comb in one hand,
blow-dryer in the other, and face covered with a respirator to protect
him from the residual arsenic.

--
Barbara Weitbrecht
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
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