274 TllK AM PURITAN MONTHLY [Oct., 



A \e\v Method ol IVcserviiijj; and Mountinji Specimens. 



By A. HALY. 

 WLOMlUt, I'KYLON. 



On tjiking cliarjie of this Mu80uni in l.S7">. I li:i<i not the 

 slightest <loubt al)«nit the success of carbolic acid, and expected 

 to make ft pood show of all our reptiles and lish, easily and in- 

 expensively. My collection of English fish in London had been 

 kept in a covered zinc jiail in a solution of 1 in 4<H), and there 

 was no doubt about the preservation of the animals themselves. 

 A few exj>eriments on the common fish and lizaids ot the ( in- 

 namon Gardens showed that solutions of carbolic acid in water 

 do not act in Colombo as preservatives at all. whatever the 

 strength employed. I had first employed alcohol for a short 

 time, and then removed the specimens to a solution of carliolic 

 acid and nitrate of potassium. 



The substances known commonly as salts, whether as poison- 

 ous as corrosive sublimate, or as harmless asalum, are all alike 

 destructive in this climate to any s})ecimen8 prepared by them. 

 I tried many diflerent kinds and always failed. The only ap- 

 proach to success was n)ade by first preparing the sp cimensby 

 arsenic paste, and then mounting in kerosine oil. A row of fish 

 j>rfj)ared in this way was exhibited, and preserved their form 

 and color beautifully for about six months, until one imrning 

 I found them nearly all broken up, and nothing left but a pre- 

 cipitate of muscle and bone at the bottom of the bottles. 



There was one branch of the animal kingdom, I had always 

 been very anxious to make a good show of, and that was spiders. 

 I naturally looked to microscopical preparations to solve that 

 question, and tried gum and glycerine. This had been given 

 up because of the great difficulties experienced with the air 

 bubVtles which formed so abundantly in it; but that did not 

 matter to me. There was something about this mixture that 

 strongly attracted my attention. Its action was unlike anything 

 I had seen fjefore, and I tried our beautiful little gold and red 

 fish in it, so abundant in the Colombo lake, and which are al- 

 wavs my first test for the c<ilor-keeping ]»roperties of any pre- 

 servative. I found these little fish became semi-trans{)arent and 

 as hard as glass, and that their colors seemed as though burnt 

 in. Twelve months afterward? thope in kerosene had broken 



