272 THE SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
How TO PRESERVE SNAKES. 
The preservative fluid commonly used is ordinary methylated 
spirit ; Cape Dop brandy, or any other kind of strong alcohol, will 
do. Lay out your specimen, abdomen uppermost ; make an 
incision of one to two inches along the middle part of its abdomen 
longitudinally. Search for and remove the gall. On reference to 
the illustration of dissection of a Puff Adder you will find the 
locality of the gall. It is a roundish bag of greenish-yellow fluid 
attached to the liver. If there be anything in the alimentary 
(food) tube, remove it. It is not necessary to remove the gall- 
bladders of small snakes. It is advisable to do so with large 
specimens, as gall frequently escapes into the spirit and discolours 
it. The next operation is to inject some spirit into the snake’s 
body, through the incision. An ordinary glass syringe will do. 
Plug up the incision with cotton-wool, and, if necessary, bring the 
edges together with a few stitches. After washing the snake 
clean, place it for a couple or three days in a jar or bottle of spirit 
to soak. The object of this preparatory pickling is to allow of 
the spirit taking the place of the natural water of the snake’s body. 
The reason snakes so frequently go bad in pickle is because this 
precaution is not observed. The water from the snake’s body 
naturally weakens the preservative fluid, and sooner or later the 
specimen decays. The permanent specimen jar or bottle should 
be of clear glass, and with a glass stopper if possible. For private 
collections ordinary round bottles will serve the purpose. In 
museums these are no longer used, as they distort the specimens. 
Jars with flat sides are better. Do not cram the specimen into 
the bottle carelessly. Arrange its body neatly in coils. Open 
the jaws and erect the fangs, if the snake be a venomous one. 
Fill your bottle up with spirit and cork it. Your next business is 
to write its name, the locality where it was captured, and the 
date. Affix the label on the bottle and write the same date on a 
small neat tag and drop it into the bottle in case the other label 
should pull off and get lost. This isan important detail. Valuable 
collections have been rendered practically valueless by neglecting 
to do this. Keep a catalogue of your specimens, and write 
down everything of interest connected with them. Write all the 
interesting information about them which you can cull from 
books or discover by personal observation. If you cannot 
