ZOOLOGY^ 47 



When the foregoing remarks have been made, the next 

 object is to skin the Animal ; and as the value and appear- 

 ance of a cabinet of Quadrupeds depends entirely on the 

 perfect state of the skins, too much pains cannot be bestow- 

 ed in the operation, which should not be commenced till 

 some hours after the subject is dead ; as in that time the blood 

 will have coagulated, and there will be less danger of soiling 

 the skin. 



The Animal should be opened down the middle of the 

 belly, and the skiu stripped back to the knee and elbow- 

 joints, which should be left with the skin, care being taken 

 to remove all the flesh and integuments from the bones ; the 

 skin may then be drawn over the neck and head ; the body 

 is to be separated from the head at the first joint ; the sur- 

 face of the skull must then be thoroughly cleared of all 

 flesh ; the eyes, brain, tongue, and flesh in the interior of 

 the mouth must be taken away, and freed of all loose skin 

 or integuments, that may be attached j when this is effected, 

 the skin may be returned to its proper position ; and the 

 cheeks must be filled out with cotton or other soft substance, 

 mixed with a considerable quantity of antiseptic powder, 

 composed of one third of white oxide of Arsenic, and two 

 thirds of powdered burnt Allum j this powder should be 

 rubbed in the inside of the mouth, and all the cavities of the 

 head, as the eyes, ears, and nostrils, should be filled with 

 pledgets of cotton, dipped first in a strong solution of 

 corrosive sublimate or Arsenic, and a quantity of th© 

 powder strewed into each place. 



The inside of the skin, and the leg bones, -tvhen qulta 



