1838 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



The eyes, tongue, throat, oesophagus and trachea must be cut away and the brain 

 removed, or the latter may be left to macerate if one is in a hurry. Sometimes 

 these parts may some of them be worth saving as moist preparations in alcohol 

 or formalin for the anatomical museum. If it is desirable to save the brain the 

 roof of the skull must be removed by cutting around its edges and the brain 

 taken out ; the roof can later be restored to its place. All the muscular tissue is 

 next to be taken off. It is best to remove the larger limb muscles one at a time, 

 loosening them, running out to the tendons and then cutting the tendon at its 

 attachment to the bone. In this way you run very little risk of cutting the liga- 

 ments of the joints, on whose integrity everything will depend. After the larger 

 muscles are taken off the muscles of the spinal column and the intercostals 

 should be cut away to some extent, but this need not be carried very far, as the 

 maceration will take care of them in an easier way. If you are not interested in 

 keeping the skin structures the entire frame can now be macerated, but in case 

 you care to preserve them the limbs should be disarticulated and treated sepa- 

 rately. 



The skeleton must not be boiled, beautiful disarticulated skeletons can be 

 readily made by boiling, but for a smaller animal there is no practicable way of 

 subsequently mounting them. By macerating in water the muscular tissue is 

 decomposed and can be removed before the more obstinate connective tissues 

 are influenced. Advantage is taken of this fact, and the whole secret of prepar- 

 ing skeletons for mounting lies just here. We have no difficulty whatever in 

 making skeletons with very little trouble by giving close attention at this point. 

 The soaking must be done in a stone or glass vessel. We found that tin or iron 

 ones blackened the bones, though galvanized iron was used without detriment. 

 The water may be changed occasionally during this stage, but it is not neces- 

 sary. It would be an improvement if the maceration could be done in running 

 water, but this is not economical in our laboratory at least (as we have a water 

 meter). There is no rule as to the time required for maceration, it depends on 

 so many circumstances. The preparation must be taken out from time to time 

 and examined as to the softness of the muscle tissue. When it is soft enough to 

 be easily removed it is time to take it out. The intervals we have noted range 

 from six days to six weeks ; the latter, however, in the case of rough dried ma- 

 terial. It is hardly necessary to remark that the chemical reactions taking place 

 during the maceration process are some of them accompanied by the liberation 

 of volatile products considered by some to be offensive to the sense of smell. It 

 is accordingly advisable to conduct this part of the process in a room that can 

 be kept shut off from the general laboratory. With a good draught these odors 

 are soon dissipated ; there is of course no way to eliminate them from the process. 



When the maceration is completed the skeleton is held under a tap and well 

 washed by a strong stream of water. If necessary some of the undecomposed meat 

 may be cut off and the maceration may proceed further, if on examination it is 

 found that the deeper masses of flesh are not sufficiently decomposed. The 

 skeleton at this point will look more ragged than it will after drying, for in dry- 

 ing there is a surprising amount of shrinkage of the softer parts ; the bleaching, 

 too, removes some of the last traces of muscle, so that complete cleaning at this 



