H. Goadby on making wet Preparations of Animal Substances. 17 
Marine glue, dissolved in an excess of white-wood naphtha, to 
form a thin solution of the glue. This, which is by far the best 
application for the purpose, dries nearly as rapidly as it can be used. 
Having devoted upwards of thirty years of my life to the dis- 
section of small animals by the aid of the microscope, and in the 
preparation of the elementary tissues of all animals, from man 
ownwards, and being desirous of preserving and making per- 
manent the results of my (frequently) very tedious labors; my 
wants, in this respect, were necessarily peculiar. ‘The ordinary 
orm of vessel, then, (and now,) in common use—a bottle, was 
altogether unsuited to my especial necessity ; I could not place 
a botile under the microscope for the examination of its contents, 
nor see the preparations without the microscope, the aberration, 
resulting from the figure of the bottle, precluding the possibility of 
defining with precision, the preparation contained within. Thus, 
the work I had been able to accomplish by suitable optical assist- 
ance could not be rendered apparent to my friends, by the use of 
a microscope ; and whether it were an exposition of the nervous 
system, or other organic structure of an insect, or a minute 
injected tissue of a frog, or a man, they were alike inaccessible 
to unassisted vision; moreover, to increase my difficulties they 
required to be kept as wet preparations. Having been in the con- 
stant habit of dissecting under water, in tin pans of various forms 
and sizes, and always covering these pans with a plate of glass to 
keep out dust, &c., when they contained unfinished dissections, 
or an animal simply prepared for dissection, I was struck with 
the beautiful appearance of an insect, or other entire animal, 
lying as naturally as possible, with all its full proportions dis- 
played, retaining its characters in their utmost integrity, au 
arran as to be easy of access to the most superficial ob- 
Server. T vision, there could not be a more charming 
sight, than a finished dissection of the nervous system in situ 
of any insect, especially of the Blatta Americana—one of which 
dissected at ten years of age—while lying in the pan in 
which the dissection has been performed; and sorely have I 
grieved at the sadly changed appearance of the same insect, at 
the instant I placed it in a bottle containing alcoholic fluid, osten- 
sibly to preserve it, but actually to complete its disfigurement. 
Neither could I suspend a delicate preparation in a bottle, in such 
a manner as to insure its safety. With a quantity of air always 
contained in the bottle, the fluid is put in motion by the act of 
taking up the vessel to examine its contents, and the particles of 
fluid beating against a delicate tissue will inevitably in time 
k or displace the structure that had cost the patient labor of 
many tedious hours to dissect and display. Thus, by my own 
act, not unfrequently, and by the carelessness of othe 
Continually losing my preparations; and this determiner 
Szconp Srries, Vol. XIII, No. 37.—Jan, 1852. eee 
