icate larvae into a weak
solution of carbolic acid, or alum and water, to harden them before
preservation.

SKELETONS OF ANIMALS.--Many people being under the impression that it
is only necessary to remove the flesh of any mammal or bird in order
to get a perfect skeleton, it may be as well to point out that as the
flesh rots, so do the ligaments which hold the bones, and consequently
the skeleton falls to pieces. When, therefore, you have made your
skeleton by the means recommended by various authors, such as exposing
it in an ant-hill, a wasp's nest, or to the attacks of the
"blow-flies" or "mealworm" (the larvae of a beetle), to "tadpoles," or
--as is the usual way with the bone preservers--by maceration in water
for a lengthened period (after removal of a great deal of the flesh,
the skin, and entrails), you will, after the careful removal of the
flesh still remaining, and subsequent drying of the bones in the sun
and air, find that nearly every bone will have to be attached to its
fellow by fine brass wire, and in the case of the bones of large
animals, each bone will have to be neatly drilled and coupled with
brass wire of greater strength.

Skeleton-making by maceration in cold water is, perhaps, one of the
most sickening operations. I have been somewhat successful by trimming
off all the flesh possible, wiring some parts together, tying others
in cloths and boiling them gently for several hours in water changed
from time to time, afterwards taking them out and picking off, with
fingers and blunt tools, all the flesh remaining--whilst hot--then
drilling and wiring all together with galvanised or copper fastenings
in a proper manner, boiling again in plenty of water, and then
allowing the bones to remain in cold water--constantly changed--for a
week or so; finally laying out in the sun and air to bleach.

By this system I have lately "skeletonized" part of a horse, and the
bones are free from grease and fairly white. Experience, however, in
this as in everything else, will tell you what to do and how to piece
one system into another to best advantage. Washing the bones with
Hudson's "dry" soap, or soda and water, will often remove a great deal
of the grease. Chloride of lime and water will assist the bleaching,
but must be managed cautiously, or in careless hands it is likely to
do more harm than good. The making of good and nicely bleached
osteological preparations really depends on carefulness and neatness,