Practical Taxidermy Part 9

Glacial carbolic acid, 1 oz.

Water, 1 pint.

Keep in stoppered bottle labelled "Poison," and shake before using.

Carbolic acid is a caustic poison, and therefore must be handled carefully.

It sometimes happens that the taxidermist, if in a large way of business, is called upon to destroy the insects infesting, it may be, the entire collection of heads or skins hanging in some gentleman's hall. No better or more effective way of doing this is to be found than plunging them entirely in a bath composed of:

No. 17.--Carbolic Acid Wash, No. 3 ("Poison").

Carbolic acid, 1 lb.

Sal ammoniac, 0.5 oz.

Corrosive sublimate, 3 oz.

Pure tannin, 4 oz.

Hot water, 4 galls.

Mix this up in some out-house, or in the open air away from the house, if a fine day; and when the mixture is cold plunge the heads or skins in, holding the former by the horns, and stirring the latter about with a stick; in fact, allowing the mixture to touch the hands as little as possible.

It is, I believe, more efficacious if laid on hot than cold, but the danger to health is greater. I venture to say that if there is anything which will preserve objects for an indefinite period it is corrosive sublimate. Deadly though it be, and dangerous to work with, it has the advantage of being used as a finis.h.i.+ng preparation, and therefore need not, except in extreme cases, be handled.

Instead of rectified spirits of wine, I have used with much success as an exterior wash for valuable bird skins, the following:

No. 18.--Preservative Wash.

Pure sulphuric ether, 1 pint.

Corrosive sublimate, 6 grs.

Keep in a stoppered bottle, labelled "Poison," and when used apply with a brush. This is more rapid in its evaporation than spirits of wine, but is very expensive. Of course, the more rapidly any spirit evaporates, and deposits poison previously held in solution, the better chance you have of not spoiling your specimens.

PRESERVATIVE FLUIDS FOR FISHES AND REPTILES.

I have lately given a great deal of attention to the preservation of fishes--and especially large ones--in some fluid which should have four advantages:

1. Perfect preservation of the specimen--and which also, if a foreign one, is consequently a long time in transit.

2. Its freedom from causing great shrinking or shrivelling of the integument.

3. The points 1 and 2 being so well balanced that the specimen is in a fit state--after many months--either to be treated as a specimen shown in fluid, or to be mounted by the process of taxidermy.

4. The comparative cheapness and facility of carriage of the preservative medium.

In trying to obtain all these advantages there seem almost insuperable difficulties in the reconcilement of these diverse conditions.

Dr. A. Guenther, F.R.S, the eminent, ichthyologist and Chief of the British Museum, recommends, in his new book, that pure or rectified spirits of wine (56 per cent. over-proof) be the only thing used for fishes, for permanent preservation in gla.s.s jars or tanks, and this even for ordinary fishes 3 ft. to 4 ft. in length, or even up to 6 ft.

in length, if eel-like. "Proof" spirit (containing only 49 per cent.

by weight of pure alcohol as against 84 per cent. contained in rectified spirit) is, says Dr. Guenther, the lowest strength which can be used.

These will then stand as

No. 19.--Rectified Spirits of Wine (56 per cent. over-proof),

and

No. 20.--Proof Spirits of Wine.

If a spirituous solution is absolutely required, I would subst.i.tute for pure spirits of wine methylated spirit (alcohol containing a certain percentage of impure gum or undrinkable wood spirit) as being cheap and sufficiently good for some purposes. It will not, however, bear any diluting with water; it must stand, therefore, as

No. 21.--Methylated Spirit (undiluted),

or as

No. 22.--Alcoholic Solution, No. 1.

Methylated spirit, 1.5 pints.

Burnt alum (pounded), 2 oz.

Distilled water, 0.5 pint.

Saltpetre, 4 oz.

This, which is to be well shaken together, becomes milky at first, but will soon fine down, and may then be decanted.

No. 23.--Alcoholic Solution, No. 2.

Methylated spirit, 3 parts.

Glycerine, 1 part.

Distilled water, 1 part.

Although turpentine will not preserve reptiles or fishes, yet, struck with the perfect manner with which I was enabled to preserve soft-bodied beetles for nearly a year in benzol or benzoline, I lately tried if this cheap and colourless liquid would be of service for other subjects, with the result that I have now some frogs (six or seven) in a gla.s.s jar containing benzoline which have been immersed for over three months, and have apparently undergone less change than if in spirits for the same length of time. Whether they are likely to be permanently preserved by this method I cannot, of course, yet determine, but if so, it would be a great gain, owing to the brilliancy of the liquid, its cheapness, and its advantages over all alcoholic spirit in its less powerful action on the sealing wax or coating used over the corks or stoppers of the gla.s.s preparation jars.

There is no doubt that pure spirits of wine will preserve objects for a great length of time, but the cost is very serious to most persons, or even to inst.i.tutions of less importance than the British Museum--added to which the strong spirit unquestionably shrivels and distorts such objects as fishes and reptiles, whilst, diluted to any appreciable extent, spirit will not preserve anything for any great period. To obviate these inconveniences chemists have invented more or less perfect preservative fluids, the oldest perhaps of which is

No. 24.--Goadby's Solution, No. 1.

Bay salt, 4 oz.

Corrosive sublimate, 4 grs.

Alum, 2 oz.