The phalanges of the hands
and feet, after being clean-scraped, were restored to their
places, and wrapped with thin layers of arsenicated cotton, as is
done to small animals, yet on the seventh day decomposition set
in; it was found necessary to unsew the skin, and again to turn
it inside out. The bones ought to have been removed, and not
replaced till the coat was thoroughly dry. The skinned spoils
were placed upon an ant-hill; a practice which recalls to mind
the skeleton deer prepared by the emmets of the Hartz Forest,
which taught Oken that the skull is(?) expanded vertebrae. We did
not know that half-starved dogs and "drivers" will not respect
even arsenical soap. The consequence of exposing the skeleton
upon an ant-hill, where it ought to have been neatly cleaned
during a night, was that the "Pariah" curs carried off sundry
ribs, and the "parva magni formica laboris" took the trouble to
devour the skin of a foot. Worse still: the skull, the brain, and
the delicate members had been headed up in a breaker of trade
rum, which was not changed till the seventh day. It was directed
to an eminent member of the old Anthropological Society, and the
most interesting parts arrived, I believe, soft, pulpy, and
utterly useless.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208