18 
HINTS ON REMOVING AND 
2. —Open the skin by cutting up the belly from the anus to the 
hinder end of the breast-bone; first push one and then the other 
knee through the opening, and cut through the legs at the knee- 
joints, leaving in the shin-bones; clear off the chief muscles of the 
leg-bones, and separate the skin from the body all round the tail; 
then, holding the skin at the base of the tail firmly between the 
finger- and the thumb-nails, or in the fork of a cleft stick, pull 
out the vertebrae from inside with the forceps; then, gradually 
turning the skin inside-out, skin it up over the body, shoulders, 
and head, separating the fore limbs at the elbow-joint, and taking 
great care not to cut it in passing over the eyes; skin it en¬ 
tirely off over the mouth, cutting carefully round the lips. 
Throughout the operation plenty of fine sawdust will be found of 
great assistance in keeping the hands, and consequently the fur, dry 
and unsoiled. 
3. —Clean with sawdust the inside of the skin from blood, fat, etc., 
and then brush it all over with arsenical soap, being especially care¬ 
ful that the insides of the limbs get some put on them. Do not 
put any poison, especially powdered arsenic, on the outer, furry side 
of the skins. But pepper, naphthaline, or camphor may be used to 
keep off moths from the skin when travelling. 
4. —Turn the skin back right side out, and fill the cavity of the 
body with cotton-wool, putting it in as far as possible in one piece. 
Or the skin may be reversed over the wool by putting the forceps 
up the furry side of the skin from the tail-end, and grasping the 
wool body through the mouth. Take care just to fill out the skin 
without over-stretching it, and try to get all your skins filled out to 
about the same degree. Take a piece of straight wire long enough 
to extend from the front end of the belly-opening to the tip of the 
tail; sharpen, if necessary, one end of it, and wind round it enough 
cotton-wool to fill out the skin of the tail; then brush it with arsenical 
soap, and push the pointed end down to the extreme tip of the tail- 
skin, and fit the near end into the belly, packing it round with the 
wool of the body. Put some wool into the empty skin of the arms 
and legs, winding it round the bones and connecting it with the wool 
of the body. Then stitch up the opening down the belly. Tie the 
label on to the right hind foot above the ankle. 
