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THE CORROSION OF SHELLS IN CABINETS. 



By L. St. G. BYNE, M.Sc. 

 With a Prefatory Note by J. Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S. 



(Read before the Society, February 8th, 1899.) 



Prefatory Note. 



Mr. L. St. G. Byne having requested me to give a few prasfatial 

 remarks to his paper, it is with pleasure that I comply. It was at 

 my instigation primarily, that Mr. Byne took up the interesting and 

 important question as to the deterioration of marine shells in public 

 museums ; and, though I cannot vouch for his having actually solved 

 the enigma, yet he is assured that butyric acid is the cause, 

 and this is borne out in a remarkable way by several experiments 

 subsequently made by him. Indeed, if Mr. Byne's researches do no 

 more than further discussion on the subject, they will have well 

 served their purpose. Hitherto the shells of mollusca have been 

 considered among the most enduring of created things, and a formid- 

 able vista of trouble in time to come looms before us when the 

 possibility of the decay of " types " is considered. 



I first noticed the deterioration of a Mitra (Zierliand) ziervoge- 

 liana in our National Collection, now many years ago and a year or two 

 afterwards the disease had spread to another example on the same 

 tablet. I have never had any specimen in my own collection thus 

 attacked, excepting one, and that I fancy must have come into my 

 possession diseased, and it was forthwith destroyed. But none of these 

 are glued or affixed in any way to tablets, as is the case in most public 

 museums, but are either placed loose on cotton wool, or in glass- 

 topped boxes. I may add that I have seen too frequently in the 

 almost hermetically-sealed drawers under the cases in the British 

 Museum, a dulness first pervading the exterior of certain smooth 

 species more markedly e.g., Conns, Cyprcea, and especially Naticidse. 

 Then grey acid efflorescence, both tasting and smelling strongly 

 of vinegar, covers the whole surface like a powder, rising doubtless 

 from the interior, and the specimens are soon almost irretrievably 

 ruined. This evil being, therefore, of most serious significance, the 

 sooner one is able to cope with it satisfactorily the better, and I am 

 sure our best thanks are due to Mr. Byne for having been the first 

 to take the matter in hand. J. C. M. 



The subject under consideration in this paper is of the greatest 

 importance to private collectors of Mollusca, and also to curators of 

 museums. 



