56 NATURALISTS' ASSISTANT. 



It is best in the case of minute specimens to place them in 

 homoeopathic vials with alcohol, then stop the vial with cork 

 and place the whole, cork downward, in a larger bottle which 

 in turn is to be filled with alcohol. This renders it easy at 

 any time to find the specimen which would not be the case 

 were it loose in a large bottle, while the alcohol in the outer 

 vial will have to evaporate until the cork of the smaller is 

 reached before there is the slightest danger of the contents 

 of the inner bottle being injured. 



The best homoeopathic vials for museum purposes are 

 those made with straight sides without any neck or shoulder, 

 as then the inside can be readily cleansed and all specimens 

 can be readily taken out for examination. Rubber stoppers 

 do not answer overwell for museum purposes, as the alcohol 

 is apt to affect them and to set free the earth with which 

 they are adulterated, and cover the objects with a dense 

 white precipitate. 



In the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, 

 oval glass jars with flat sides are used for starfishes and 

 ophiurians. The mouth of the jar is ground and covered 

 with a glass plate fastened by cement and also by a strip of 

 tinfoil extending on both the glass cover and the sides of the 

 jar. The specimen is spread on glass or mica plates and fas- 

 tened with thread, bristles or silvered wire, and the whole 

 placed in the spirit. 



Dissections of animal forms are preserved in alcohol by 

 extending on some substance not affected by the spirit. The 

 principal ones employed are mica, glass and wax. The ob- 



