A fatal case happened under my own personal observation in California where the undertaker laid out a Chinaman that was purging at the mouth. Some of the poisonous fluid got into a hang-nail, and in three days he died, although a council of physicians was called, but nothing devised or prescribed could help him, simply for the want of a perfect antidote like the Excelsior Preservative, which, if applied, as directed in this manual, is a certain preventative against the deadly ravages of this virus. And I will once more say to the undertaker, you must be on your guard at _all times_, and as self-preservation is paramount to all other considerations in matters of this kind, be sure to bathe your hands in the Preservative before commencing to handle or lay out the dead, and also bathing them with it thoroughly _immediately afterwards_. CHAPTER XIII. Chemical Affinities. I will here give a few of the reasons why the Excelsior Preservative will do all that I represent. To those who are acquainted with chemical laws, hardly any discovery seems too strange to be true. Chemical laws and their affinities are truly wonderful, and if we are to produce a certain result on the dead human system, we must make use of chemicals that have affinities for the parts to be acted upon, and no affinity whatever for those parts that we desire to leave intact or undisturbed. Careful study and experience have taught me that albumen and gluten are the principal if not the only putrescible substances with which we have to deal in the preservation of the dead. Putrescent gases and odors which originate from the decomposition of those substances, partake largely of their nature, and even carry with them minute atoms of the corrupted mass into the air we breathe, and it matters not whether this putrid and offensive matter exist in the air or flesh, where the Excelsior Preservative comes in contact with it the air is at once cleansed and rendered wholesome, or the flesh preserved. My Preservative is made from chemicals that act directly upon the albumen and gluten, uniting with them to form a new compound, and the compound so formed becomes a new substance, and this has an affinity for the hitherto unaffected constituency of the flesh, which all combine to form a new, pure, and imputrescible whole; by this means changing the corruptible mass into a _perfectly preserved body for all time_. The Excelsior Preservative being infinitely superior and paramount to all other preparations known to man in either ancient or modern times for the preservation of the human body in its natural and life-like appearance. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] CHAPTER XIV. Advantages to the Undertaker of Scientific Embalming.