Movement of the International Literary Exchanges, between France and North America from January 1845 to May, 1846: With Instructions for Collecting, Preparing, and Forwarding Objects of Natural History Written by The Professors Administrators of The Museum Of Natural History At Paris. And Instructions Relative to Anthropology and Zoology
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Movement of the International Literary Exchanges, between France and North America from January 1845 to May, 1846: With Instructions for Collecting, Preparing, and Forwarding Objects of Natural History Written by The Professors Administrators of The Museum Of Natural History At Paris. And Instructions Relative to Anthropology and Zoology
Exchange of publications
This is the preservative employed in the museum and its success is
certain. It is well to use it especially for rare and precious
specimens, about whose preservation there is any cause of anxiety. It
is wise to plaster the skins of birds with it, especially the claws
and bill.
It is well, likewise, to plaster the naked parts of quadrupeds, such
as the face and hands of apes.
Each bird or quadruped of small or middling size, thus prepared, and
in the inside of which a little cotton is put, not to give it a form,
but that the different parts of the skin need not touch, should be
placed in a sack or enveloped in paper well closed, and these sacks
should be ranged in a box, which should be well pointed, so that not
only dampness but even air may be excluded.
The skins of large animals, too thick to be preserved by means of
arsenical soap, should be rubbed whith salt. The skin of the animal
should be stretched, covered carefully with salt within and without,
and when, after several days it is sufficiently saturated, it should
be folded with the epiderm inside, and put in a box, or simply wrapped
in cloth, straw or any other dry substance, and keept as much as
possible beyond the reach of dampness.
The means that we have pointed out are simple, easy and require little
time.
We come now to the way of preserving animals in alcohol.
If they are quadrupeds, birds, reptiles or fish of considerable size,
each specimen should be wrapped in linen tied round the body with
thread; if the animals are very small like mice, small vipers,
shell-fish or worms, the linen should be large; a certain number of
these animals are placed upon it so that they do not touch; then the
linen is rolled upon it self, so as to make a doll sowed with thread,
that it may not unwind; afterwards, place the bundles side by side in
a cask. When the cask is full, so that the bundles are packed close,
it should be filled with brandy, rum or whiskey; generally some strong
liquor; afterwards it should be pitched with care, so that the liquor
may not escape. This method has two advantages: 1º animals wrapped in
linen cannot tear each other with their nails or spines; 2º the linen
having imbibed the alcohol, if the cask leakes, the animal will not be
entirely dry; and when the casks are opened, as they should be several
times on a long voyage, there be an opportunity of filling them again
with alcohol.
The spirituous liquor be from 16 to 22 deg. of the areometer of Baume;
stronger, it destroys the colors of animals; it is used at 22 deg. only
for mammifers. All spirituous liquor are equally good. The color less
are preferable.
Before wrapping vertebrated animals in cloth, an incision should be
made in the breast and abdomen, to let the liquor run in the inside of
the body. The opening should be very small, in the side, and not in
the middle. If the mammifers are large, it is well to pour the alchool
in the intestinal canal, either by the mouth or anus.
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