Sept, 1914 
A METHOD OF CEEANING SKULLS 
241 
stream of water will clean the bones if they are first placed on a fine-meshed 
screen. 
Notes. — Dry flesh requires less cooking than fresh. If practicable, dry 
before cooking. In shipping undried skeletons dry eornmeal, in quantity, will 
keep the meat from becoming putrescent. 
Sheep, deer, and goat skeletons are so easily cleaned after cooking for 
considerable time in water alone that no solution should be used. 
Cleaning skulls.- — The individual age of the skulls, as well as the genus, 
has much to do with the length of time they should be stewed. The skull of 
an adult Peromyscus will not be injured by a process which would disarticulate 
the skull of a juvenile Neotonia. It is necessary, therefore, to group each genus 
by itself ; and in one genus to separate the adults from the juveniles. 
The next step should be the removal of the brains. This should always 
be done in the field while the skull is still fresh, as it can then be done with 
greatest ease and least danger of injuring the bones. If this has been neg- 
lected the skulls should be thoroughly soaked in warmed water and the brains 
removed vdth a bent wire or a small scraper (such as is figured in Hornaday’s 
“Taxidermy”). A half ounce “infant rectal” syringe is also very useful. The 
nozzle should be filed down until it is thin-walled so that it may be inserted 
in the foramen magnum of a small skull. By holding the barrel of the syringe 
between the second and third fingers of the right hand, close to the palm, noz- 
zle facing outward, and the ring of the plunger over the first joint of the 
thumb, one hand can operate the syringe while the other holds the skull under 
water. Care should be taken when water is forced into the brain-ease, or the 
bones will be wrenched apart. If the brain is thoroughly softened and broken 
up, the greater part of it can be sucked out, instead of being forced out. If 
this is done there will be no danger of disarticulating the posterior poi’tion of 
the skull. If the brains are not removed before cooking, they may expand 
and force the brain-case apart. 
If each skull has a heavy, non-soluble tag attached, with the number or 
identifying mark written thereon with waterproof ink, many skulls may be 
cooked loose in one container. Higgins’ Eternal Ink on imitation parchment 
paper has been used with success. Each group of skulls should be placed in 
separate, clean, unrusted granite-ware or aluminum pots and covered with 
Solution I. These should be cooked as directed for skeletons, trying several 
skulls at short intervals to observe progress. As soon as done, wash, cook in 
water, then in Solution II and finally clean. 
All clinging flesh should be removed by using a bone scraper (not too 
large), a tooth brush (previously dampened to soften it), and the syringe. With 
the exception of the juvenile skulls, which can not be cooked so long, it will be 
found that the meat will become so softened as to be readily sucked off by 
using the syringe as directed for the brains. 
Some experimenting may be found necessary in adopting this method, but 
it should not prove difficult to master, as these directions have been used in 
manuscript form by persons without previous experience or personal instruc- 
tion. 
This process has been employed in the osteologieal laboratory of the Cali- 
fornia Museum of Vertebrate Zoology for the past four years, and many thous- 
ands of skulls and many hundreds of skeletons have been prepared, all with 
uniformly satisfactory results. 
University of California, August 7, igi4. 
