Frederick Gymer Parsons

“ In disease of the spine its natural curvatures are much increased, and the deformity known as humpback is produced. As the spine forms the central part of the axial skeleton, it acts as a column to support not only the weight of the body, but of all that can be carried on the head, back and in the upper limbs : by its transverse and spinous processes it serves also to give attachment to numerous muscles, and the transverse processes of its thoracic vertebrae are also for articulation with the ribs. ”

“ If light leathers are being considered, it is ready for immediate leaching, i.e. to be infused with water in preparation of a liquor. If heavy leathers are in process of manufacture, he would be a very wasteful tanner who would extract his material raw. It must be borne in mind that when an infusion is made with fresh tanning material, the liquor begins to deposit decomposition products after standing a day or two, and the object of the heavy-leather tanner is to get this material deposited in the leather, to fill the pores, produce weight and make a firm, tough product. ”

“ In the lower vertebrates as well as in the embryo of man, a number of cartilaginous or bony arches encircle the mouth and pharynx (anterior part of the food tube) , just as hoops encircle a barrel. There is little doubt that, when they first appeared in the history of evolution, all these bars supported gills and bounded gill slits, but in all existing types the first arch has been modified to surround the mouth and to act as both upper and lower jaws, gaining in different animals a more or less complete connexion with the cranium or brain-containing part of the skull. ”

“ The art of the leather manufacturer is principally directed to overcoming the tendency to putrefaction, securing suppleness in the material, rendering it impervious to and unalterable by water, and increasing the strength of the skin and its power to resist wear and tear.
Leather is made by three processes or with three classes of substances. Thus we have (1) tanned leather, in which the hides and skins are combined with tannin or tannic acid; (2) tawed leather, in which the skins are prepared with mineral salts ”

“ In the Amphibia, Reptilia and Aves, one cavity acts as pleura and peritoneum, though in the latter the lungs are not completely surrounded by a serous membrane. In many lizards the comparatively straight intestine, with its continuous dorsal mesentery and ventral mesentery in the anterior part of the abdomen, is very like a stage in the development of the human and other mammalian embryos. ”

“ A rib is an elongated bone, and as a rule possesses a head, a neck, a tubercle and a shaft. The head usually has two articular surfaces, and is connected to the side of the body of two adjacent thoracic vertebrae ; the neck is a constricted part of the bone, uniting the head to the shaft; the tubercle, close to the junction of the shaft and neck, is the part which articulates with the transverse process of the vertebra. ”

“ If, as is often the case, the tanner is his own currier, he does not tan the goods so heavily, or trouble about adding superfluous weight, but otherwise the after processes, the art of the currier, are the same.
Currying consists of working oil and grease into the leather to render it pliable and increase its strength. It was once thought that this was a mere physical effect produced by the oil, but such is not the case. Currying with animal oils is a second tannage in itself; the oils oxidize in the fibres and produce aldehydes, which are well-known tanning agents ”

“ In the mammalia the diaphragm is complete (see Diaphragm) and divides the pleuro-peritoneal cavity into its two constituent parts. In the lower mammals the derivatives of the original dorsal mesentery do not undergo as much fusion and obliteration as they do in adult man; the ascending and descending mesocolon is retained, and the transverse mesocolon contracts no adhesion to the great omentum. It is a common thing, however, to find a fenestrated arrangement of the great omentum which shows that its layers have been completely obliterated in many places. ”

“ The first operation to which they are subjected is depilation, which removes not only the hair but also the scarf skin or epidermis. When the goods are sent to the limes for depilation they are, first of all, placed in an old lime, highly charged with organic matter and bacteria. It is the common belief that the lime causes the hair to loosen and fall out, but this is not so; in fact, pure lime has the opposite effect of tightening the hair. ”

“ The upper limb in man may be subdivided into a proximal part or shoulder, a distal part or hand, and an intermediate shaft, which consists of an upper arm or brachium, and a forearm or ante-brachium. In each of these subdivisions certain bones are found : in the shoulder, the clavicle and scapula ; upper arm, the humerus; in the forearm, the radius and ulna, the bone of the upper arm in man being longer than the bones
of the forearm ; in the hand, the car- pal and metacar- pal bones and the phalanges. ”

“ In tanning light leathers everything must tend towards suppleness and pliability in the finished leather, in contrast to the firmness and solidity required in heavy leathers. Consequently, the liming is longer and mellower; puering, bating or some bacterial substitute always follows; the tannage is much shorter; and mellow materials are used. A deposition of bloom in the goods is not often required, so that very soon after they are struck through they are removed as tanned. The materials largely used are sumach, oak bark, gambier, myrobalans, mimosa bark, willow, birch and larch barks. ”

“ Hence the sacrum and coccyx of the adult are the false, whilst the lumbar, dorsal and cervical are the true vertebrae.
The vertebrae are irregularly-shaped bones, but as a rule have certain characters in common. Each possesses a body and an arch, which enclose a ring, with certain processes and notches. The body, or centrum, is a short cylinder, which by its upper and lower surfaces is connected by means of fibro- cartilage with the bodies of the verte- brae immediately above and below. The collective series of vertebral bodies forms the great column of the spine. ”

“ Sheep-skin is especially loosely woven in the centre, so much so that any carelessness in the wet work or sweating process enables one to split the skin in two by tearing. This loosely-woven part is full of fatty nodules, and the skin is generally split at this part, the flesh going for chamois leather and the grain for skivers. The other notable exception is the horse hide, which has a third skin over the loins just above the kidneys, known as the crup; it is very greasy and tight in structure, and is used for making a very waterproof leather for seamen’s and fishermen’s boots. ”

“ The Spine, Spinal or Vertebral Column, chine or backbone in man consists of a number of superimposed bones which are named vertebrae, because they can move or turn somewhat on Spine
each other. It lies in the middle of the back of the neck and trunk; has the cranium at its summit; the ribs at its sides, which in their turn support the upper limbs ; whilst the pelvis, with the lower limbs, is jointed to its lower end. ”

“ In the intersegmental tissue ventral to each of the intervertebral disks a transverse rod of cells, known as a hypochordal bar, is formed which connects the heads of two opposite ribs. In man the greater number of these either disappear or form the middle fasciculus of the stellate ligament which joins the head of the rib to the intervertebral disk, but in the case of the atlas the rod chondrifies to form the anterior (ventral) arch which is therefore intersegmental, while the segmental body of the atlas, through which the notochord is passing, joins the axis to form the odontoid process. ”

“ The skin has a large, bold, brilliant grain, and being a large skin is much used for upholstery and coach work, like the Cape goat. It is quite distinct from the fur seal.
Porpoise hide is really the hide of the white whale; it is dressed for shooting, fishing and hunting boots. Horse hide is dressed for light split and upper work; being so much stall-fed it supplies only a thin, spready leather. The skins of other Equidae, such as the ass, zebra, quagga, &c. are also dressed to some small extent, but are not important sources. ”

“ The first appearance of any stiffening of the embryo is the formation of the notochord, which in the higher vertebrates is a temporary structure and is not converted into cartilage or bone. It also differs from the bony skeleton in that it is derived from the entoderm or inner of the three. layers of the embryo while the bony skeleton is formed from the mesoderm or middle layer and, just as the entoderm is an older layer of the embryo than the mesoderm, so the notochord or entodermal skeleton precedes, both in embryology and in phylogeny or comparative anatomy, the bony mesodermal skejeton. ”

“ Very few dyes will dye chrome leather direct, i.e. without mordanting. Sulphide colours are not yet in great demand, nor are the alizarines used as much as they might be. The ordinary acid and basic dyes are more generally employed, and the goods consequently require to be first mordanted. The mordanting is carried out by drumming the goods in a solution containing tannin, and, except for pale shades, some dyewood extract is used; for reds peachwood extract, for browns fustic or gambier, and for dark browns a little logwood is added. For all pale shades sumach is exclusively used. ”

“ The corium is coarse in the centre of the skin where the fibres, which are of the kind known as white connective tissue, and which exist in bundles bound together with yellow elastic fibres, are loosely woven, but towards the flesh side they become more compact, and as the hyaline layer is neared the bundles of fibres get finer and finer, and are much more tightly interwoven, until finally, next the grain itself, the fibres no longer exist in bundles, but as individual fibrils lying parallel with the grain. ”