2. If the skeleton is smaller than a fox, leave the legs attached to the body, for convenience, until you have cut the flesh away from them with your scalpel or pocket-knife, without any disjointing. When all the legs have been thus roughly denuded of flesh, cut them loose from the body and lay aside for the moment.
3. If the specimen is larger than a fox, cut off the legs from the body, lay each one flat upon the ground, inside uppermost, divide the flesh all the way along it directly over the bones, and literally dissect the bones out of the mass of flesh, instead of cutting the flesh away piece by piece. This is the quickest and neatest way. The scapula must come off with the fore leg, and be left attached to the humerus. Be sure you cut off all the masses of flesh, but don't cut off the knee-pan, as you may easily do if you are not watchful.
4. Now for the carcass. Hold it on its back, begin at the breastbone, flake off the flesh from the sides of the body close down to the ribs, until the backbone is reached. Cut off as much flesh as you can (hurriedly) from along the backbone.
5. Next attack the abdomen. Beginning at the lower point of the breastbone, detach the walls of the abdomen from the ends of the short ribs, down to the lumbar vertebræ, and so on around the iliac margin of the pelvis. Cut through the diaphragm close up to where it is attached to the ribs, and remove at one effort the entrails and vital organs.
6. Cut away the flesh from the pelvis, both inside and out, and the flesh of the tenderloin from underneath the lumbar vertebræ.
7. Cut the flesh from the thick portion of the tail.
8. Cut off the head at the first cervical vertebra, and clean the skull as previously described elsewhere, but leave the hyoid bone in its place.
9. Cut the flesh away from the neck vertebræ as well as you can. Be careful not to cut the sternum (or breastbone), which is soft cartilage, and easily cut; nor the ends of any vertebral processes, nor any soft bones.
10. If the skeleton is a small one, it is apt to get quite bloody during the operation. Wash it clean, and if necessary soak it in clear water for an hour or two. It will come all the whiter for it in the end. Skeletons of ruminant animals are generally clean enough without that.
11. Do not poison a rough skeleton with arsenical soap, nor put salt upon it; so says Mr. Lucas, the osteologist of the National Museum. The former has a tendency to prevent skeletons from properly macerating and coming white. Sprinkle dry arsenic upon a skeleton, if anything is necessary to protect it from Dermestes and other insects. Never put alum on a skeleton.