Skinning

“ Thoroughness.—The principles to be observed in skinning the body are precisely the same as those given for small mammals. Remember that it is easier to take the skin off clean and free from flesh as you cut it from the animal, and can stretch it tight with your left hand in order to shave the flesh off clean, than it will be to clean the skin after it is off. An excess of flesh left on the skin means unnecessary weight, a waste of preservatives, and longer time in curing the skin. A clean, thin skin is more easily and quickly cured and carried than one badly taken off. ”

“ This board is to put the skin over in order to hold it better while removing particles of fat and flesh which adheres to it while skinning, which can be done with a blunt-edged knife, by scraping the skin from the tail down toward the nose — the direction in which the hair roots grow — never scrape up the other way or you will injure the fiber of the skin, and care should be taken not to scrape too hard, for if the skin fiber is injured its value is decreased. ”

“ I have been employed the whole of the day in skinning a young lion, and it is not yet finished. I am taking the skin off complete. It is the first seal I have skinned in this way, and I find it a very tedious job. I don't know any other animal that would be so difficult to skin. ”

“ The labor of skinning is exceedingly severe, and is trying even to an expert, demanding long practice ere the muscles of the back and thighs are so developed as to permit a man to bend down to, and finish well, a fair day’s work. The knives used by the natives for skinning are ordinary kitchen or case-handle butcher-knives. They are sharpened to cutting edges as keen as razors, but something about the skins of the seal, perhaps fine comminuted sand along the abdomen, so dulls these knives, as the natives work, that they are obliged to whet them constantly. ”

“ As to putting cotton wool between the flesh and the skin, practice will enable one to do without this. To me it would be a great nuisance, unless in the case of much grease, of persistent bleeding, or clots of extravasated blood occurring. All the rest of the instructions on skinning are sound and practical, except where he advises the knee to be used instead of a table. A little reflection, or, better still, a trial, will convince anyone that nothing can compare in practice with a table or bench for comfortable working. ”

“ OF SKINNING ANIMALS. As soon as an animal is killed, take cotton and stuff in the wounds, nostrils and mouth, as directed in Article I. for birds; then let it cool before commencing to skin. In skinning a specimen be very careful about cutting holes in the skin, and also not to stretch it by 64pulling on it while skinning. All being ready, lay the specimen on its back, make an incision from the breast-bone back to the center between the hind legs, being careful not to cut too deep over the abdomen. ”

“ Skinning Large Mammals.—Large mammals should be skinned by making a cross incision down the entire length of the breast, between the fore-legs to the vent, then down the under side of each leg quite to the feet. Remove the skin but leave in two bones and the joints in each leg. ”

“ With but few exceptions, the process in skinning a large bird is, from start to finish, precisely similar in principle to that for a small one, which has already been described. When you get the body about half skinned, and are well started up the back, thrust your hanging hook into the top of the pelvis, and suspend the bird in mid-air, so that you can work with both hands. Be careful, however, throughout the whole operation that you do not allow the weight of the body of the skin to stretch the skin of the neck. ”

“ A few pieces of fine brush, laid on the inside of the skin as you peel it off, serve to protect the skin from any blood which may escape from the bullet wounds or elsewhere during the operation of skinning. ”

“ To hang the hare on a hook is a most convenient way of accomplishing the skinning, as both hands are thus free and the skin can be thus far more carefully removed and with far greater ease than if the animal be laid upon a board. ”

“ Cut off the fore and hind legs at the first joint, make a long slit in the skin underneath the body, detach it from the flesh, and draw it over the hind legs, leaving the tail on. The next step is to draw the skin over the back and slip out the fore legs, easing it with a knife, if necessary, over the neck and head, and being very careful not to injure the ears, which are left on. In skinning this is the most delicate part, and one that is always found difficult by the amateur, but the appearance of a roast hare is spoilt if the ears are torn or otherwise injured. ”

“ The sweat drops that bespeak the heart's agony stand forth; and with true instinct on the brow, in which the immovable bone constitutes the determining feature, precisely at the point where nose, eyes, and forehead coalesce, and the life of mind and heart is concentrated and emphasized, we find that just one or two indications of skin-folds and muscles, unable to be distorted to any great extent, are suffered pre-eminently to bear and express in tension this accumulated weight of agony. ”

“ I know of no other simple or single means, by which such circulation can be established and maintained in the skin, as by the constant and spirited use of the hair mittens. Besides, it will do wonders for the beauty of your face. Giving the skin of the residue of the body a free circulation, the skin of the face is not likely to be called upon to do more than its share of removing the effete matter in the system, and, therefore, is not likely to take on pimples and other evidences of impurities in the blood. ”

“ If the chin is fleshy and you wish to massage it down to smaller proportions, you must dissolve the fatty tissues by picking up the flesh between the thumb and forefinger and rolling and rubbing as much as you possibly can without injuring or breaking the skin. Then, in order to keep the flesh from getting flabby the rotund little chin must be bathed in cold water, in which is a small pinch of alum, a piece the size of a bean being plenty for a pint of water. This alum bath, remember, is only to be applied when you are reducing the carbon or fat.
The "kneading" movement is very beneficial. ”

“ The skin becomes dry and hot; an irresistible lassitude is felt, accompanied with headache; the face and hair are red with sand, which, to complete the discomfort, finds its way even under one's clothing. ”

“ When the skin or hide is shorn, one part is denominated wool or hair, and the remainder is no longer termed a 'skin,' but a 'pelt.'
VII. Thus as 'hair' pays a duty of ten per cent., but the skin with the hair on, only a duty of five per cent., in the case of a deerskin; so in the case of a sheepskin, while the 'wool' pays a duty of thirty per cent., the skin with the wool on should pay only a duty of five per cent. ”

“ The skin, when cut, is in itself devoid of sensation; and this is especially the case with the skin on the head, owing to there being no flesh between it and the skull. And wherever the skin is quite by itself, if it be cut asunder, it does not grow together again, as is seen in the thin part of the jaw, in the prepuce, and the eyelid. ”

“ In youth, while the skin is firm and elastic, the wrinkles on the forehead or around the eyes, caused by a frown or smile, pass away, leaving no more trace than the ripples on the surface of a lake. With advancing age the skin becomes looser and less elastic, so 452that frequent repetition of those movements which produce a fold in the skin finally leaves an indelible mark on the furrowed countenance. Woman’s skin, being commonly better “padded” with fat than man’s, is not so liable to wrinkles, provided attention is paid to the laws of health. ”

“ Albert. The skin differs in its appearance in different animals, and in different parts of the body. With young people and females it is soft, smooth, and delicate; it is firmer and more resisting in middle age, and with males; it appears loose and wrinkled in old age, and after some diseases; it is puckered or disposed in folds in places where it would otherwise interfere with the proper movements of the limbs, as over the finger-joints, and in the palm of the hand.
Father. Very well, my son. Should you suppose, Charles, that the skin is one sheet, or that it is composed of layers? ”

“ The figure was that of a man without a skin; with every vein, artery, muscle, every fibre and tendon and tissue of the human frame, represented in minute detail. It looked natural, because somehow it looked as if it were in pain. A skinned man would be likely to look that way, unless his attention were occupied with some other matter. ”

“ Our skin not only made our hair, teeth, and nails, but still retains in every part a trace of its nail-making powers, so that under pressure or irritation, it can thicken up into a heavy leather-like substance which we call callus. This is naturally and healthfully present in the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands. Savage, or barbarous, races who wear no shoes get the skin of their soles thickened into a regular human leather, almost {195}half an inch thick, and as tough as rawhide. ”

“ That the skin is much affected under the sense of great fear, we see in the marvelous manner in which perspiration immediately exudes from it. This exudation is all the more remarkable, as the surface is then cold, and hence the term, a cold sweat; whereas the sudorific glands are properly excited into action when the surface is heated. The hairs also on the skin stand erect, and the superficial muscles shiver. In connection with the disturbed action of the heart the breathing is hurried. The salivary glands act imperfectly; the mouth becomes dry and is often opened and shut. ”

“ The fugitive paleness, which accompanies the coldness of the extremities, is owing to a less quantity of blood passing through the capillaries of the skin in a given time; where the absorbent power of the veins is at the same time much diminished, a part of the blood lingers at their junction with the capillary arteries, and a bluish tinge is mixed with the paleness; as is seen in the loose skin under the eye-lids, and is always a mark of temporary debility. ”

“ For the fact of the skin of the thigh being perished, or even when showing of the upper arm, or of the leg, or fore-arm, affords a less formidable appearance, but if the hair fall from the head and the skin along with it, and still more if that of the cheeks and chin go with it, the appearance of injury is very great ”

“ If dispersion does not follow and the matter has collected in greater quantities, then the most elevated spot, the same where the skin is the thinnest, should be opened. Should a part of the skin be discoloured, it must be cut away. ”

“ Skin A greater division of mankind is made by the skinne then by any other part of the body, that is into white & black, or negros, which are very considerable part of mankind & differenced from others not only in the skinne, butt noses, lipps, hayre of the head & thicknesse of the skull, & their skinns not only remarkable in the colour butt the smoothnesss though it had been oyled without or had more then usuall oylinesse under it, whom, notwithstanding, the scarres of the skinne are white, & though black may have the yellowe Jaundis & take fevers. ”

“ The relative thickness of the same skin in the limed and puered conditions under varying loads is also of interest. The process of puering may, as a rule, be taken to reduce a limed skin to between two-thirds and one-half of its thickness in the swollen condition. If both limed and puered skin be then subjected to the same load, the puered skin will at first be compressed very much more than the limed one. ”

“ The skin, especially of the face, having been subjected to extreme tension, becomes foldy and wrinkly. It has lost its youthful elasticity on account of insufficient and unhealthy blood circulation as well as lack of light and sun. ”

“ The outer skin which has served its purpose is being incessantly cast off in the—form of whitish looking powder, but instead of being thrown clear from the body it clings to it and becomes entangled with the perspiration and oily material, thus forming an impediment to the free action of the skin. ”

“ Like the air of the desert it so rapidly, so instantaneously evaporates the imperceptible perspiration that the skin beneath your clothes as well as that of your face develops a new sensation. It has ceased to be merely a tough, half-dead integument, whose function is just to protect you from external rubs. ”

“ The skin is thrown, with the flesh side up, over a stake 2 or 3 feet high driven firmly into the ground. The person kneels down before the stake, and when the skin is placed so as to afford a convenient portion to begin upon, an edge is taken between the fingers of the left hand and lifted slightly from the ground. A blow is given with the tool which separates the subcutaneous tissue, and by rightly directed blows this may be separated from the skin entire. ”

“ Other methods of puering, based on the direct weakening of the skin fibres from the outside, may also effect the pulling down of the hides, and moreover, in consequence of that attack on the skin fibres without straightening the fibrils, an immoderate amount of substance is lost, and therefore a hard, stiff, thin and light leather is obtained. ”

“ The matter of which it is formed is secreted or poured out by the true skin, and is the same matter which, when dried and hardened in various degrees, becomes the thick skin on the sole of the foot, the callous place on the hand or elsewhere, the dandruff of the head, the hair on any part of the body, the nails of fingers and toes, the hard portion of warts, and the hard or soft corn. ”

“ It is a small fine Skin, transparent and insensible, having also innumerable Pores for the discharging of Sweat, and other Humours by imperceptible Transpiration: It is extended over the whole inner Skin, to dull its too exquisite Sense, by covering the Extremities of the Nerves which are there terminated. It also renders the same Skin even and smooth, and so contributes very much to Beauty. ”