Leather

   Of all the ancient industries that of the manufacture of leather is one of the most interesting on account of the convertibility of an easily descomposed substance into one which resists putrefaction. The manufacture of leather is as old as history itself. In China the manufacture and use of leather was known before the Christian era, and in Egypt leather has been found in mausoleums of the ancients, showing us that rations in the remote ages of the past were practised in the art and left slight traces of their high civilization to be admired today. The Persians and Babylonians passed the art over the Greeks and Romans and so down through the different medieval nations to us. The Amer­ican Indians were also well versed in the art of making leather. Although their method of tanning was entirely different from that of the ancient races, the fact remains that they also discovered a way of treating the skins of animals in such a way as to prevent the putrefaction of animal tissues.