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skins and skulls when desired. If kept with the skins, the skull vials or 
boxes may be laid in narrow pasteboard trays either in the middle or at an 
end of the sliding drawers. A slight economy in storage space may often be 
effected by keeping the skulls in separate cases, arranging them in 
systematic order with the species or subspecies in their numerical order 
according to the catalogue numbers. 
Incisor Teeth of Ruminants 
Hollister (1923) calls attention to the fact that even in collections 
of dozens of skulls of a given species of deer, sheep, antelope, or other 
ruminants, it is hard to find a perfect set of incisors. The incisors in 
the lower jaw are very fragile, many are chipped or broken before reaching 
the museum, and after cleaning and drying in a heated building they 
become as brittle as delicate china. Being attached to heavy skulls, 
they are almost sure to strike some hard surface and break. As the incisor 
teeth are of great scientific value in systematic work, Hollister advocates 
that every perfect set should be carefully preserved by sawing off the ends 
of the jaws just posterior to or across the middle of the junction of the 
jaws (symphysis menti). Number and label the specimens and preserve 
all the incisor row complete, in natural position, in trays of cotton, like 
collections of eggs. If it is necessary to photograph a complete jaw, the 
severed end may be fastened temporarily with modeling clay or plasticine. 
