48 Zoological Collections. Vertebrata. 



plate, and entirely covered with salt during eight hours. At the end of this time, 

 the fish must be put in a dry place, exposed to the sun during the day, and free from 

 moisture by night. The salt must then be entirely wiped off, and the fish wrap- 

 ped in cloths, to prevent the scales from falling off. It is then again to be put 

 into alcohol of 18°, for transportation. The flesh is penetrated with salt, and when 

 it is immersed in alcohol of 18°, which contains much water, the salt is dissolved, 

 and forms an alcoholic solution, which preserves the fish and its colours for a long 

 time, even under the tropics, as M. Ricord proved during his last voyage to Haiti. 

 All these preparations must be made in different casks : that in which the fishes 

 are transported must be tarred externally, and washed in the inside with chlorate 

 of lime, and then with alcohol of 36°, to take up the chlorate, which will other- 

 wise destroy the colours of the fishes. Slips of parchment, marked with the 

 name or number of the fish, are to be attached to the tail with an iron wire. As 

 soon as the fishes are arrived at their destination, they must be put into alco- 

 hol of 25°. This mode of preserving fishes is certainly more expensive than the 

 old one, but it is incomparably better. 



When the skin alone is wanted, it must be raised from the body in a deep vessel 

 full of alcohol, by which means the scales will not fall off. After this is prepared, 

 each skin should be covered with silk paper, which may be closed by a little 

 paste ; the scales are thus prevented from being rubbed off during the voyage. 

 The paper is easily removed by placing the skin for a few minutes in water. 

 . The colour of the eyes should be painted on a paper which contains the num- 

 ber of the fish.— Froricjo's Notizerij No. 567- — Bull, des Sci. Nat. xxii. 136. 



Mode of Death of Fishes. — In the stickleback, {Gasterosteus aculeatusy) the 

 loche, {Cobitis barhatula,) and the minnow, [Leuciscus phoxinus,) when full 

 grown, and I suppose arrived at the extremity of age, I have often observed, some 

 days previous to death, the tail extremity to lose its flexibility, and to become 

 covered with a kind of mould, or conferva-like substance, to the height of two or 

 three lines, and that this substance or growth gradually crept along towards the 

 middle of the fish, the rigidity of the parts still increasing till they died. Is this 

 the natural death of fishes ? — James Stark, in Ed. New Phil. Journ. Oct. 1 830. 

 p. 331. 



Mr. Stark cons-ders three years to be about the average duration of life in the 

 minnow in confinement. 



Chemical researches on the Blood of Fishes. — M. Morin has recently conduct* 

 ed a series of experiments on the blood of the salmon, with the view to determine 

 the nature of its difference from human blood, as a subject of medical jurisprur 

 dence. The blood upon which he operated was of a deep red colour, with a viola- 

 ceous tint, and was like a very thick sirup ; it was somewhat gelatinous, and red 

 dened vegetable blue colours. The colouring matter of the blood of fishes, ac- 

 cording to M. Morin, cannot be confounded with the principle which colours the 

 blood in the mammalia, especially on account of its solubility in alcohol and 

 ether, and its crimson red colour when separated from the body. We must ac- 

 cordingly admit the colouring matter of the blood of fishes, amongst the distinct 

 proximate principles of animals. 



Iron is one of the elements of this colouring matter ; besides which there is a 

 fat brown oil, having the odour of the fish ; another fatty matter, with a rancid 

 smell, without any acidity, and very soluble in ether ; an animal substance pos- 

 sessing the properties of osmazome; acetate of soda, chlorate of sodium, and 

 phosphate of lime ; and lastly, an albuminous matter, very soluble in alkalis and 

 acids, resembling mucus in the latter property. 



The author conchules that the spots produced on clothes by the blood of fishes, 

 cannot be mistaken for those which are occasioned by the blood of mammalia, 

 from the nature of the colouring matter, and the absence of fibrin. — {Precis ana- 

 lytique des travaujc de V Academic de Rouen.) Bull, des Sciences Nat. July 

 1830, p. 131. 



