[17] THE PRESERVATION OF MARINE ANIMALS HOVEY. 



walls of the jar, and if the polyps remain well distended, the change 

 to the different grades of alcohol then goes forward very gradually. 

 In the weak alcohol minute bubbles of air frequently form and attach 

 themselves to the tentacles, giving them a tendency to float and thus 

 causing distortion. Striking the sides of the receptacle with light 

 blows will rid the tentacles of the bubbles. 



Pennatula phosphorea and Eophobeletnnon, when they have become 

 well distended, are taken by the naked base and very swiftly immersed 

 in a tall, cylindrical jar containing the chrom-acetic mixture No. 2, and 

 after a few seconds are placed in a crystallizing dish containing 50 per 

 cent alcohol, where they are allowed to rest on their backs. Then with 

 a small syringe with a very fine point inject alcohol into them through 

 a minute hole made in the extremity of the base. In this manner the 

 alcohol penetrates to all parts of the interior and distends the polyps. 

 Tie a thread around the end of the base above the hole which was 

 made so that the escape of the alcohol may be prevented. After some 

 hours the animals should be transferred to 70 per cent alcohol, and in 

 the final receptacle Kophohelemnon should be suspended upside down by 

 means of a glass float with a liook in it. 



Pennatula rubra, Pteroides spinulosus, Veretillum, and Funiculina 

 are killed like the Pennatulids just mentioned, but no injection is made 

 after the transfer to weak alcohol. Soft forms like Veretillum should 

 be suspended in the final receptacle. Small forms of the Pennatulids 

 may be killed without removing them from the vessel in which they 

 have become distended, and they are then treated like the Cornularians. 



Gorgonia, Gorgonella, Prwinoa, Muricea, Isis, etc., should be killed 

 with chrom-acetic mixture No. 2 in the same dish in which they have 

 become distended on account of the great sensitiveness of their polyps. 

 It is always advisable to have as little water as possible in the dish at 

 the time of killing these animals, and to pour over them a volume of 

 the mixture twice as great as that of the water in which they are. 

 Several times it has been noted at the station that the Gorgonidae 

 which have expanded in sea water which has begun to turn bad are 

 those which have given the better preparations. The small colonies, or 

 pieces of colonies, remain with their polyps distended if they are killed 

 with boiling saturated sublimate. Isis may be well preserved by 

 using a mixture of sublimate and acetic acid. 



Gorallium rubrum, after it has been allowed to expand in running 

 sea water, should be killed with boiling saturated sublimate solution 

 (half as much as the water containing the coral), and quickly transferred 

 to weak alcohol. By this method the color is almost perfectly preserved, 

 while by the use of the chrom-acetic mixture it is very much injured. 

 The alcohol which has been used for this coral can not well be used 

 afterwards for the preparation of any delicate organism. A colony of 

 Antipathes which was placed in such alcohol was dyed red within twenty- 

 four hours. 



2138— No. 39, Pt. M 2 



