FIXING AND PRESERVATIVE MEDIUMS 35 



Leicester Museum. Glycerin is, as these pages will show, one of 

 the most useful of liquids to the advanced modeller ; it not only- 

 retards fermentation and decomposition remarkably, but, com- 

 bining readily with either water or alcohol, is used in modelling- 

 compositions as well as preservatives ; it is valuable also for 

 brushing over the eyes, nose, and lips of mammals, and the bills 

 and legs of birds, to keep them fresh and damp during modelling. 

 Further, a small quantity added to the pastes or "cures" 

 retards the drying of skins, which is often an advantage. It is 

 also of great service to keep the fins of fishes damp, before and 

 after casting. 



Alcohol and Bichloride of Mercury. — The most perfect pre- 

 servatives are probably those which contain with alcohol a certain 

 percentage of bichloride of mercury, which has almost, if not quite, 

 superseded carbolic acid in hospitals for antiseptic purposes, one 

 part in a thousand being sufficient to prevent or kill disease germs 

 and fungoid growths ; but it will be better for the taxidermist's 

 purpose if he accepts the proportion of one part in five 

 hundred. 



Whenever these preparations are used for skins, etc., they 

 should be applied with a brush, and invertebrate animals which 

 have been killed in it should be lifted out with a piece of 

 wood or with wooden forceps, the greatest care being necessary 

 in all cases that this deadly poison does not come into contact 

 with the fingers. When skins known to be charged with it are 

 beaten out, the men should be warned to cover the mouth and 

 nostrils, to prevent the inhalation of the poisonous dust. The 

 same remark applies to arsenic also, but probably in a less 

 degree. 



9. — Alcoholic Solution of Mercury, one part in 1000. 

 For preventing and arresting mildew, and for external use upon skins. 



Methyl-alcohol, 90-95 per cent. . i pint 



Bichloride of mercury . .10 grains 



