Process with Mammals.—We will assume that the skeleton has been carefully scraped, and is now ready for mounting. The successive steps in this work from start to finish are about as follows:
1. In case the skeleton has been dried after scraping, as is often done, it must be soaked in clear water until the ligaments are relaxed.
2. Cut a zinc or galvanized iron wire of the right length and size to replace the spinal marrow, and long enough that the upper end of it will project beyond the axis into the brain cavity of the skull. Sharpen one end of this wire so that you can force it well down into the sacrum, and insert it in its place in the spinal column.
3. Bend the vertebral column to its permanent shape. In doing this, draw the sternum well forward so that the ribs will spread out, and show a chest cavity of the right size for inflated lungs. If you are not careful in this regard, the chest cavity will be too narrow.
4. Hang the body in a frame made of light strips of wood, as shown in the accompanying plate. Let the body hang at just the right height from the pedestal to receive the legs (Plate XX.).
5. Space the ribs carefully by starting a thread from the neck, and taking a turn around each rib from the first to the last, finally making fast the remaining end of the thread to one of the lumbar vertebræ.
6. Put on each hind leg by drilling a small hole straight through the head of the femur and the socket of the pelvis (innominate bone), through which a small brass wire is to be passed and clinched down closely at each end, to hold the head of the femur firmly in place.
7. Place each leg in the attitude chosen for it, plant the foot according to its osteological character, and pin each toe in its proper place, as shown in the accompanying plate. The leg must be held in place by attaching threads to it, and making them fast to the various parts of the gallows.
8. In putting on the foreleg, the position of the scapula must be defined with accuracy, in order to avoid placing it too low or too high, and thus making an incorrect representation of the height of the animal. Bear in mind that the scapula never lies prone upon the ribs, but is separated from them by a cushion of muscle. It is therefore necessary to leave a certain space between ribs and scapula.
9. Next cut two stiff brass wires of the proper length for the two standards that must support the skeleton (see A A and B B in Plate XX.). To make the U-shaped fork at the upper end of each standard, to clasp the vertebral column, heat one end of the rod red-hot, and plunge it into cold water, which softens the metal. Now put it in a vise, and with a hack-saw split the rod down the middle as far from the end as necessary. Finish neatly by rounding off the ends with a fine file, and bending them in shape with the pliers. The lower end must have a thread cut on it an inch or so in length, a neat brass "rosette" screwed upon it (R) to do duty on the top of the pedestal, and a small brass nut made to screw on underneath the pedestal, to hold the standard firmly upright. These standards need not be put in place under the skeleton until it is mounted finally on its handsomely polished, permanent exhibition pedestal.