Practical Taxidermy Part 8

Common salt, 0.25 pint.

Water, 2 to 4 galls.

The following, taken from the "Year Book of Pharmacy for 1880,"

appears to be a very efficient formula; like all the rest of such formulae, it contains a certain percentage of a.r.s.enious acid:

A new Preserving Fluid.--The Prussian Secretary of State for Education has caused the publication of the following compound and method of its application, discovered by Wickersheimer, the Preparator of the Anatomical Museum of the University of Berlin, who had at first patented the compound, but was induced to renounce his patent claims.

No. 12.--Wickersheimer's Preserving Liquid, No. 1.

In 3000 parts of boiling water dissolve 100 of alum, 25 of sodium chloride, 12 of pota.s.sium nitrate, 60 of pota.s.sa, and 10 of a.r.s.enious acid, let cool and filter. To every 10 litres of the filtrate add 4 litres of glycerine and 1 litre of methylic alcohol. [Footnote: A gram = 15.444 grains troy; a litre = a little more than 11 pints.]

Its application differs with the special objects to be preserved. In general, the objects must be impregnated with it. If the objects are to be preserved dry, they are soaked in the liquid from six to twelve days, and afterwards dried in the air.

Ligaments, muscles, and other animal objects remain perfectly soft and movable. Hollow organs, as lungs and intestines, should be filled with the liquid previous to immersion in it; after being taken out, and before drying, it is advisable to inflate them with air. Injecting the liquid into a corpse will preserve the latter completely, and the muscular tissue will always retain the natural colour of fresh corpses. To preserve the outward appearance of the latter, they should be well impregnated externally and enclosed in air-tight oases; this is only necessary to preserve the exact original appearance; if it is not done, the body will keep equally well if thoroughly injected, but the exterior will gradually become somewhat dry and dark coloured.

Plants may likewise be preserved by this liquid. [Footnote: So expensive a preparation is, I think, sufficiently well replaced by salt, corrosive sublimate, and distilled water (see Formula No. 27).

M. Decandolle exhibited, some years since, a branch of a coffee tree which had been perfectly preserved for fifty years. It was then pointed out that the efficacy of such solutions (saline) depended on their being boiled and applied to the plants hot (not boiling).]

The following is a modification of the above, useful for comparison as to relative strengths for injection and immersion:

No. 13.--Wickersheimer's Preserving Liquids, Nos. 2 and 3.

For Injecting. For Immersing.

a.r.s.enious acid 16 grams 12 grams.

Sodium chloride 80 grams 60 grams.

Pota.s.sium sulphate 200 grams 150 grams.

Pota.s.sium nitrate 25 grams 18 grams.

Pota.s.sium carbonate 20 grams 15 grams.

Water 10 litres 10 litres.

Glycerine 4 litres 4 litres.

Wood naphtha 0.75 litres 0.75 litres.

My friend, Dr. Priestley Smith, surgeon to the Birmingham Eye Hospital, has kindly given me his formula for a process which most admirably preserves delicate parts of animals. Having been enabled to give him some eyes of rare animals and fishes (whales and sharks), he showed me the process which is now fully explained in the following extract from the British Medical Journal of Jan. 10th, 1880:

PRESERVATION OF OPHTHALMIC SPECIMENS.

Several friends and correspondents have asked me to refer them to a description of the method which I employ for the preservation of ophthalmic specimens, examples of which were exhibited in the annual museum of the a.s.sociation in Cork last summer. I published an account of it in the Birmingham Medical Review for July, 1878; but, as several improvements have been effected since that time, I shall be greatly obliged by being allowed s.p.a.ce in this journal for a brief description of my present method.

No. 14.--Priestley Smith's Formula.

The following are the solutions, etc, employed:

1. Mueller's Fluid--viz.

b.i.+.c.hromate of potash 1 part,

Sulphate of soda 1 part,

Water 100 parts;

2. Hydrate of chloral and water, 1 in 20;

3. Glycerine and water, 1 in 4,

4. Glycerine and water, 1 in 2--i.e, equal parts;

5. Glycerine-jelly--viz.

Best French gelatine 1 part,

Glycerine 6 parts,

Water 6 parts,

Soak the gelatine in the water until swollen, then heat and add the glycerine, add a few drops of a saturated solution of carbolic acid, and filter hot through white blotting-paper;

6. A thick white varnish made by mixing oxide of zinc with copal varnish in a mortar.

The eyeball is placed, immediately after excision, unopened, in Mueller's Fluid for about three weeks, light being carefully excluded.

It is then frozen solid by immersion for a few minutes in a mixture of finely powdered ice and salt, and immediately divided into lateral halves by means of a sharp-edged table-knife. The portion to be mounted is then placed in chloral solution for some weeks, in order to remove the yellow colour; light being still excluded, and the fluid being changed until it is no longer discoloured by the b.i.+.c.hromate. The specimen next lies for twenty-four hours or longer in the weaker glycerine solution, and is then transferred for a similar period to the stronger glycerine solution, after which it may be mounted in the jelly without danger of shrinking. A specimen-jar being two-thirds filled with melted jelly, the half-eye is placed in it, the concavity upwards. When every interstice is filled, it is turned over (care being taken to avoid the inclusion of an air-bubble), and held in a central position in contact with the bottom of the jar. When cold and firmly coagulated, the jelly is coated over with white varnish. A few days later, when the surface of the varnish is firm, this again is thinly coated with a film of jelly, and thereby preserved from the ultimate danger of cracking. The jar is fixed with glue into a suitable wooden stand. The gelatine which yields the strongest and most colourless jelly is that manufactured by Coignet and Co, of Paris, obtainable in packets, and known as the "gold-label" variety.

The specimen-jars, admirable both as to material and workmans.h.i.+p, have been made expressly for me by Messrs. F. and C. Osler, of Broad Street, Birmingham, from whom they may be obtained in any number.--PRIESTLEY SMITH, Birmingham.

Glycerine r.e.t.a.r.ds fermentation and decomposition to a remarkable degree. It combines readily with alcohol or water.

Boracic acid in small quant.i.ties mixed with a solution of saltpetre, i.e, 1 to 50, is stated to be of service in the preservation of flesh.

Previously salted meat cannot be preserved this way; salting evidently removes the phosphates. Action of boracic acid would, no doubt, set up acid phosphates, which are the prime causes of the preservation.

A preparation of borax has been brought out by Mr. Robottom, of Birmingham, who claims for it that it preserves all animal and vegetable tissue, as well as being useful for tanning skins. I shall refer to this preparation further on. Carbolic acid (pure) will be found a valuable ally of the taxidermist. Calvert was the chief if not the only maker of the pure preparation, which is sold in 0.5 lb. or 1 lb. bottles in a solid crystalline state, as if it were frozen. The bottle, with the stopper temporarily removed, must be plunged in boiling water to melt out as much as is required, to which must be added many times its weight or quant.i.ty of water. This diluted preparation will be found of infinite service in the hot summer months for pouring in the "gentle" infested throats or wounds of mammals and birds preparatory to skinning. Diluted and poured on a little burnt alum or pure tannin, and the mixture well shaken together, it forms an exceedingly strong preparation, as well as a valuable one, for painting the noses or pickling the tongues of animals before or after skinning. Two strengths of this will be found very useful. Thus:

No. 15--Carbolic Wash, No. 1 (for Mammals).

Glacial carbolic acid, 2 oz.

Burnt alum or pure tannin, 1 oz.

Water, 1 pint.

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

No. 16.--Carbolic Wash, No. 2 (for Birds).