436 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



curious remed}% and always with success. M. Taillet, a physician 

 at Agle, in the course of his practice, has also verified it, and as the 

 subject is not mentioned in any work upon medicine, it has been 

 inserted in the Annates des Sciences dt Observation. 



27. Different Methods of preserving Animal and Vegetable Sub- 

 stances designed for Scientific Collections. By M. Barpay. — The 

 advantages and inconveniences which attend different liquids which 

 have been hitherto employed to preserve anatomical preparations, 

 or individuals of the animal and vegetable kingdom, which enrich 

 our museums, are well known. 



Alcohol, which in travelling is not always at hand, involves ex- 

 penses beyond the reach of private people. This menstruum dis- 

 solves the fat and saccharine parts, and the colouring matter, con- 

 sequently, cannot always meet the views of the collector. 



The solution of alum and of nitrate of potass only fulfil their 

 destination imperfectly, and alter the tissues. 



Corrosive sublimate, beside the dangers attendant upon the use 

 of it, does not preserve better the entire substance. 



Mr. John Davy* has proposed the solution of sulphurous acid 

 gas, which is subsequently filtered, to give transparency to the 

 liquid. This preparation unites, to the lowness of its price, the 

 property of preserving substances for an indefinite time, and of 

 rendering transparent the least compact parts of the organization. 

 In this manner, the author has preserved for three years several 

 anatomical specimens, which are as fresh as at the time of their 

 immersion ; the bottles are closed, corked, and luted with wax. 

 The same process, Mr. Davy assures Us, may be pursued with regard 

 to vegetable substances. The specimens in pathological anatomy 

 may also be preserved uninjured in the same liquid. 



Care must be taken to plunge these substances into the solution 

 before putrefaction has commenced. If it be wished to render the 

 structure of the tissues more apparent, a strong solution must be 

 employed. A weak solution only is required, when anatomical 

 specimens are to be preserved. 



This process certainly will not answer for substances of which 

 it is wished to preserve the exact form and colours. 



M. Vignal, who has the care of the botanical specimens of the 

 Faculty of Medicine of Paris, has discovered an excellent method of 

 preserving animal substances ; it is, to plunge them in water con- 

 taining an excess of camphor in lumps. As long as the lumps of 

 camphor remain in the water, the specimens are preserved without 

 alteration, even from the contact of air. They would be preserved 

 for an indefinite time in a bottle with a ground glass stopper. M. 

 Vignal, from whom may be expected more ample details on this 

 subject, has kept a foetus two or three months, or for more than 

 a year, in an open vessel. 



* Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, vol. iii. part !• 



