Preservation of Animal s^ Birds, Fishes, ^c. 53 



tion or for preparing a skeleton, care must be taken that the bones be 

 not mjured. 



Larger animals may be prepared in spirits of wine provided their 

 skins are separated in the manner described below, and their bodies 

 taken out as far as the skull and ancle joints. The process in other 

 respects is the same as with animals of smaller dimensions. The 

 following method is also used for salting the skins of larger animals. 

 Take equal parts of salt and alum and strew them over the skin af- 

 ter it is taken off, and then fold it up. Every part must be freed from 

 adhesive matter and rubbed with the given mixture. After one, two 

 or three days (the length of time to be regulated by the climate or 

 the season of the year,) the process must be repeated until it is suffi- 

 ciently prepared. To preserve the skin thus prepared, make a brine, 

 which must be so far saturated with salt that an egg will float upon it, 

 enclose the skin in a tight vessel, fill it entirely with the brine, and 

 stop the opening. The preparations which we have described must 

 precede their transportation in spirits. They should be packed in 

 the following manner. At the bottom of the vessel, place a layer of 

 cotton, on this a layer of animals, then another layer of cotton, and 

 so on till the whole space is filled, covering the last with a layer of 

 cotton. The vessel is then to be closed and through an opening, the 

 spirit is to be poured in, till the whole space is filled up. The opening 

 is to be tightly closed, the whole vessel to be well covered with pitch, 

 the hoops fastened, and if desirable for further security, it may be 

 enclosed in cloth, leather or the like.* 



11. Preparation in Arsenical Soap. 



(a) Mammiferous Animals. — The abdomen of the animal should 

 be cut open, the skin ripped down, and the thighs of the hinder feet 

 drawn out until the knee joints can be separated. The tail should 

 then.be severed and either drawn out or else have its skin peeled oft' 

 by cutting it on the under side through its whole length. The skin 

 should then be drawn over the back to the fore feet, the bones of 

 which should be separated at the knee joints and the skinning con- 

 tinued to the head. It should then be detached from the vertebrae 

 of the neck and drawn to the point of the nose, where it should re- 

 main attached to the skull. The skull should then be freed from 

 flesh by scraping, and the brains taken out with care. All the parts, 

 the interior and exterior of the skull, together with the skin of the 

 head, should be spread over with diluted arsenical soap, and the 

 skin drawn back again over the head* But first the sockets of the 



