Practical taxidermy

by Montagu Browne

This all requires time and patience, lest you push the point of the knife or scissors through the skin, and also as you will not at the first trial succeed in detaching the head from the body.

The knife or scissors must then be run a little way down the back, to detach the skin. The neck being now entirely free, lay the knife down, and endeavour to push the broken or cut part of the neck up through the mouth; seize the end with your right-hand fingers and gradually slide the skin down with your left hand, turning it inside out until the vent is reached, which carefully cut away; beyond this the skin, instead of coming off easily, holds most tenaciously to the flesh, and the knife again comes into play to free it all around.

Near the extreme tip of the tail it will be almost impossible to get the flesh out, you must therefore skin as far as you can, and then make a small incision underneath, lay back the skin on each side, and cut the flesh away. This operation will bring the outside of that part inside. Return, it, and neatly sew up the cut from the inside, trim away all flesh from the skull bone, take out the eyes, put a stitch in the vent, and anoint the whole of the skin with the preservative.

To return the skin, push a small round stick down and pull the skin back on it; when nearing the tail, the stick may be removed and the fingers used to gradually work this end through, or tie a small piece of wool to form a knot on the end of a piece of doubled thread, and push it through by a long fine needle from the inside to the out, at the same time allowing the needle to come through, by doubling up the skin. You may reach the needle with your fingers, or by long pliers, or even shake it down by its own weight, then by pulling gently you return the skin effectually.

To stuff the snake insert a funnel in the mouth, and fill the skin through this with fine dry sand, or dry plaster of Paris, taking great care to shake the sand well down, and fill in every part in a regular and natural manner. On nearing the head, push a piece of wool in the mouth to prevent the sand from running back, and then adjust the snake to the position you require, leaving the head to be modelled last with clay, putty, or plaster, then remove the wool and make up the throat and inside of the mouth. The natural tongue should be left in, and displayed with fine entomological pins pushed in the hollow underneath, and, if shown open-mouthed, the fangs must be dropped, and the head raised, as in the attitude of striking.

Large snakes, such as rock snakes or boas, must be cut on the old system, viz., under the belly and skinned out, working up and down, as the muscles have so firm an attachment that the slipping-out process cannot be resorted to, but each inch will have to be laboriously cut away from the skin.

Sawdust, mixed with a little sand, will be found very useful for stuffing the larger snakes, as the weight of so large a quantity of sand, or plaster, is too great to successfully manipulate.

A few hints as to snakes and snake bites may not be out of place here. To distinguish the only venomous snake found in the British Isles is an easy matter, if you have the opportunity of examination. In the first place, the viper appears to have a more spade-like and flatter head than the common snake, and has a black cross from near the neck running up to the centre of the head, where it terminates in a black, oval-shaped spot. But the greatest distinction, perhaps, is that a decided pattern runs down the centre of the back, appearing as a chain of obtusely-shaped diamond markings, joined together, and somewhat confused in places.

Again, it has in the upper jaw two fangs or poison teeth, which in rest lie folded back; on pulling them down with a needle, or by the crooked awl, they appear as fleshy lobes, out of the apex of which is thrust a little glittering point like a small fish bone. This small bone or fang is hollow, and through it the poison is ejected by a process too complex to describe in the pages of this work.

The slow-worm, common snake, and the one other rarer species found in Britain, have merely the ordinary holding teeth, and are all perfectly harmless. Should anyone be so unfortunate as to be bitten or scratched by a viper's fang, a speedy application of liquor ammoniae fort (strong ammonia) to the wound, with the further application of a ligature above the bitten part will be found of benefit, and perhaps avert serious consequences until surgical aid is obtained. Ipecacuanha has been recommended, powdered and applied as a poultice, with an internal administration at the time also, of the same drug, but that requires medical knowledge as to the extent and frequency of the doses.