Jan. 1935 Annual Report of the Director 215 



for many years, were pinned or spread, and most of them pin- 

 labeled. The number of specimens thus pinned was 2,885. Much 

 appreciated help on this routine work was given in the latter half of 

 the year by a volunteer assistant, Mr. Rupert L. Wenzel, and by 

 Illinois Emergency Relief workers. By means of relief assignments, 

 the Museum's accumulated series of bees, wasps, and parasites 

 were also separated into their proper families, determined specifi- 

 cally in part, and arranged in sixteen new containers. 



Entries of skeletal material numbered 367, distributed among 

 mammals, birds, and reptiles. All material of this kind, excepting a 

 few bird skeletons, was catalogued, labeled, and carded so that the 

 records, so far as possible, are up to date. For the first time the 

 individual bones of all disarticulated skeletons were separately 

 numbered. This insures permanent proper association of the bones 

 and avoids troublesome transpositions in handling. 



Extraordinary progress was made in cleaning skulls and bones, 

 largely through assistance provided through federal relief agencies. 

 This work had fallen far behind and much valuable material was 

 inaccessible. Most important was the cleaning of more than 1,000 

 skulls of large mammals which had accumulated over a period of 

 years during which accessions were at a rate higher than the regular 

 staff could meet successfully. In addition, 3,056 small and medium- 

 sized skulls were cleaned and bottled. 



A skeleton of a spectacled bear was cleaned by maceration and 

 two other large mammal skeletons were prepared by other methods. 

 Many smaller skeletons were cleaned by dermestids in the dermestid 

 room. Three frog skeletons were prepared from alcoholic specimens. 



An echidna, a young orang, and a large Australian tree frog, 

 which were received in the flesh, were prepared for anatomical study 

 by embalming and by injecting the arteries and veins with colored 

 masses. An opossum was embalmed and stored. This highly 

 desirable material fonns a nucleus for a synoptic series of vertebrate 

 types, preserved for study of the soft anatomy, which will be an 

 extremely important addition to the collections. 



A detailed study was made of the so-called Schultze method of 

 clearing and staining smaller vertebrates to render the skeleton 

 visible without destrojnng the surrounding tissues. Through 

 specially qualified assistants assigned by relief agencies, much 

 progress was made in appljdng this process to Museum material. A 

 total of sixty-one excellent preparations, mostly amphibians and 

 reptiles, was made. 



