30 | THE ATLANTIC. [cuap. I. 
a ship, or how rapidly, even with the greatest care, they become 
destroyed or lost. For this reason it is necessary to have an 
almost unlimited supply of those in most frequent use, such as 
scissors, forceps, and scalpels of all sizes; reserves being rubbed 
over with mercurial ointment, and stowed away, where they 
can be looked at from time to time. 
The operations carried on in the work-room on shipboard 
are, of course, very much the same as the ordinary routine work 
of a museum work-room and a physiological laboratory, and 
the processes are much the same, only modified by the special 
nature of our work. We are provided with all the necessary 
apparatus and arrangements for skinning, mounting, and pre- 
paring specimens in all ways, and for dissecting and injecting. 
By far the greater number of the animals obtained are pre- 
served in spirit; and to the stowage of spirit and of spirit prep- 
arations the entire fore-magazine is devoted. The spirit is 
stored in cylindrical iron vessels, containing each four gallons, 
and closed by screw-taps; they are stowed in racks in the mag- 
azine, and taken up as required, and emptied into the tank in 
the nettings. Stowed also in racks in the magazine are a series 
of cases of wide-mouthed specimen-bottles. The cases are num- 
bered and arranged in the racks in order, so that it is only nec- 
essary to give the number to the gunner’s mate, who has charge 
of the magazine, and any case required is at once brought up ~ 
into the work-room for inspection. An exact list is kept of the 
contents of each case and of each bottle, so that it is never nec- 
essary for any member of the scientific staff to go down into 
the magazine. The bottles in which the greater part of the 
specimens are preserved are those known in the trade as “ drop- 
bottles,” manufactured for holding sweetmeats of various kinds. 
They are of pale-green glass, very transparent, and are closed 
by glass stoppers with cork rims. Three sizes are in use, the 
diameters of the bottles being 6 inches, 43 inches, and 3# inches, 
with mouths 3%, 22, and 2% inches respectively. The bottles 
