and Freserving Animals. 285 



animals, especially the Medusee, contain a great quantity of fluid, 

 which, mixing with the preserving liquid, dilutes it, and renders- it 

 unfit for long-continued preservation. The best preserved specimens 

 of these delicate animals are those that have been placed immediately 

 after capture in the solution No. 1, diluted with an additional pint 

 of rain-water, and which have been afterwards transferred to fresh 

 solution of the proper strength. Glass-stoppered bottles with wide 

 mouths are the best adapted for the larger Acalephae. 



Echinoderms (^Star-Fish [Asterias], Sea-Urchins [Echinidce], 

 Trepang or Sea-Cucumbers [Holothurice'j^. 



For the preservation of the entire animal, with the; soft parts of 

 a Star-fish (Asterias), or a Sea-urchin (Echinus'), the arsenical solu- 

 tion (No. 2) is preferable ; the softer Trepangs (Holothurice) may be 

 preserved in either solution. It should be gradually added to the 

 vessel of water in which the living specimen is at rest, in order to kill 

 it, with the soft appendages protruded or elongated. This is particu- 

 larly requisite in the case of the Holothurioe, which, if plunged sudden- 

 ly in solution, are apt to squeeze out and rupture their viscera. With 

 regard, however, to long and slender Star-fishes (Ophiurse), sometimes 

 called " brittle stars,'' from their habit of breaking themselves into 

 pieces when captured, these should be instantly plunged into a large 

 basin of cold fresh water, when they die in a state of expansion, and 

 too quickly for the acts of contraction by which the rays are broken 

 off'. After lying for an hom' or so in the fresh water, they may be 

 transferred to the solution ; if preserved dry, they should be dipped 

 for a moment in boiling water, then dried in the sun or in a current 

 of air, and packed in paper. When the specimens have soaked in 

 solution one or two days, according to the temperature, they should 

 be removed into fresh solution. The Echini should be sewed up 

 each in a separate bag of muslin, and not be crowded so as to press 

 upon each other in the same bottle. The Star-fish and Sea-ui'chins 

 that are preserved dry should be emptied of their viscera or soft con- 

 tents by the mouth or larger (lower) aperture, and should then be 

 soaked in fresh water, changed two or three times, for so many hours, 

 or until the saline particles of their native element have been ex- 

 tracted, before they are dried. The Echini should be wrapped up 

 in cotton, and sewed up, each in its separate bag, in order to pre- 

 serve the spines, which may become detached in the course of a 

 voyage, and are apt to become so if the precaution of soaking away 

 the saline particles bo not previously taken. All Echini and Star- 

 fish should be examined for small shells (Stylifer of Broderip, for 

 example), whicli nestle in and among the rays, and at the roots of 

 the spines, and for other parasites. 



Recent Pentacrini (Lily-stars), especially their bases, will be 

 valuable acquisitions. They may be dredged up of large size in 

 tropical seas; as those of Guadaloupe, for example. 



VOL. XliVII, NO. XCIV. — OCTOIJEK 1849. U 



