44 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



This may be used alone, or in combination with bichloride 

 of mercury (see Formula 1 6), to kill and fix larvae and delicate 

 organisms, which should afterwards, however, be well washed 

 many times in water until it shows no trace of colour, otherwise 

 crystals will form within the tissues and render the objects 

 opaque. 



Chloral Hydrate. — This is one of the most useful reagents 

 employed at the Naples Station, and is used in such small 

 proportions as follow : — 



30. — Hydrate of Chloral Solution (Lo Bianco, pp. 442, 443) 



Chloral hydrate (ordinary) . 2 parts 



Sea-water .... 998 ,, 



or weaker by making it a i per thousand solution. 



When such "sea-anemones," says Lo Bianco (p. 448), as 

 Heliactis bellis, Bunodes gemmaceus, and B. rigidus are well 

 extended in sea-water, remove from the vessel containing them 

 two-thirds of the water, and substitute a 2 per thousand solution 

 of hydrate of chloral. After two minutes remove some of the 

 liquid, leaving sufficient to just cover the animals, which are 

 then killed by flooding them with a cold saturated solution of 

 bichloride of mercury, afterwards followed, of course, in the 

 usual manner, by the preservative alcohols. 



Amongst the "worms," the Nemerteans appear to have 

 given Lo Bianco the most trouble, and it was only after reiter- 

 ated experiments that he succeeded in narcotising such forms 

 as Carinella, Cerebratulus, Drepanophorus, Nemertes, Polia, etc., 

 well extended in a i per thousand solution of hydrate of chloral in 

 sea-water, in which they remained from six to twelve hours, being 

 subsequently hardened in a small long zinc box covered with 

 wax on the bottom. Such Nemerteans as were insufficiently 

 narcotised soon regained their vitality upon being placed 

 again in fresh sea-water. 



