MUSEUMS. 535 



are quite gone to skin and bone. It is what it ought not to be ; it is 

 the product of a bad system, which ought to be exploded in these 

 days of research and improvement. But how is this defective system 

 to be improved, so that a specimen may be produced which shall be 

 right in all its parts, durable as the table on which it is placed, safe 

 from the depredations of the moth, and not liable to injury when 

 exposed to damp? To effect this, two things are indispensably 

 necessary. The first is, to put the skin of the quadruped, upon 

 which you are going to operate, in a state to resist putrefaction, and 

 the attacks of the moth, without the use of that dangerous, and at the 

 same time inefficient composition, known by the name of arsenetical 

 soap. The second is, to keep the skin moist during the time in 

 which you are imparting to it the form and features which it is ulti- 

 mately to retain. 



These most necessary points are gained by immersing the skin in 

 a solution of corrosive sublimate in alcohol ; and afterwards, when 

 you are in the act of restoring it to the proper form, by touching cer- 

 tain parts of it, such as the nose, lips, and orbits, with a mixture, one 

 portion of which is salad oil, and the other three are spirit of turpen- 

 tine. 



Those who preserve quadrupeds for cabinets of natural history, 

 seem not to be aware that, after the skin of the animal has been taken 

 off, there is a necessity for some parts of it to be pared down from 

 within. These parts are chiefly the nose, the lips, and the soles of 

 the feet. Unless they be rendered thin by the operation of the knife, 

 there will be no possibility of restoring to them that natural appear- 

 ance which they were seen to possess in life. The inner skin of the 

 ears, too, must be separated from the outer one, until you come close 

 to the extreme edges. Nothing short of this operation can save the 

 ear from becoming a deformity. 



Every bone in the skin, to the last joint of the toe, next the claw, 

 must be taken out, in order to allow the operator an opportunity of 

 restoring the skin to its former just proportions. 



The mouth must be sewed up from the inside (the skin being in- 

 side out when you sew it), beginning exactly in the front, and con- 

 tinuing the operation each way to the end of the gape. When the 

 skin is taken out of the solution, it must be filled quite full of chaff 



