CHAPTEK XXXVH. 

 CLEANING LARGE SKELETONS BY MACERATING. 



THERE are two ways to clean the skeletons of large mammals : 

 (1) by boiling- the bones, and (2) by maceration. The first is 

 short, cleanly, and agreeable ; but the skeleton produced by it is 

 sure to be full of grease, and is anything 1 but white and pleas- 

 ing to look upon when mounted. The boiling process is also 

 detrimental to the texture of the bone. The professional oste- 

 ologist, to whom a greasy bone in a mounted skeleton is an un- 

 pardonable offence, never thinks of boiling a skeleton to get the 

 flesh off, for the reason that the grease is boiled into the bone 

 instead of out of it. Cleaning by boiling is permissible only 

 under exceptional circumstances. If you wish a particular 

 skeleton for a special purpose within a very short time, or if you 

 are so situated that macerating a skeleton is impossible then 

 boiling is excusable, but steaming is far preferable. 



PREPARING A SKELETON FOR MACERATION. It is, of course, to 

 be understood that it is only the skeletons that are too large to 

 be scraped and mounted as " ligamentous skeletons " that are 

 to be macerated, bleached, and afterward articulated with wire. 

 The firstthing to do is to cut out the sternum in one piece, as al- 

 ready shown in Plate XXI., poison it in arsenic water, and hang 

 it away to dry and be scraped afterward. A sternum must never 

 be macerated, for it is so soft the cartilaginous framework would 

 be entirely destroyed. The skeleton must now be cut com- 

 pletely to pieces, excepting that it is not necessary to separate 

 all the vertebrae of the spinal column. The ribs must be cut off, 

 and the joints of the legs cut asunder. The large bones of the 

 legs contain marrow, and of these bones each one must have a 

 large hole drilled in each end on the face of the articulating 

 surface, so that when mounted the holes will not show. These 

 holes are to afford the water access to the interior of the bone. 



