856 The American Naturalist. [September, 
MICROSCOPY. 
Methods for the Preservation of Marine Organisms Em- 
ployed at the Naples Zoological Station.—Unfortunately for 
our students, especially those living inland and depending largely for 
their knowledge of marine forms upon dried or preserved specimens in 
museums, the old-fashioned methods of throwing any material which 
the collector may find into a jar of alcohol without further attention, 
or else drying it in the sun, are still almost the only ones made use of 
for the preservation of museum specimens. The result is that the 
majority of forms which the student has for study are either dried 
skeletons, or shrivelled up monstrosities giving no idea whatever of the 
actual appearance of the creatures supposed to be represented by them. 
How many college museums possess a specimen of coral showing in any 
recognizable form the polyps by which the skeleton coral was formed ? 
Or how many have even a satisfactorily prepared Lamellibranch ? 
There are, however, in this country, a few collections which show a 
marvellous improvement in their manner of preparation, and which have 
been purchased for the Naples Zoological Station, whose conservator, 
Salvatore Lo Bianco, has, for several years, been devoting himself to 
' the discovery of the best methods for the preservation of the form and 
color of the marine animals occurring in the Mediterranean. Until 
the present, however, his discoveries have not been made common 
property, except in the few cases where the most successful methods 
of preserving certain forms have been published in connection with 
accounts of their structure. The last number of the Naples Mit- 
fheilungen, however, contains a full description, by Lo Bianco, 
of the methods found most successful for the preservation of the 
various forms which occur at Naples, and which are undoubtedly appli- 
f 
cable to the similar forms found upon our own coast. 
these methods is given in the following pages, in the hope that they 
may be found useful by the museum curators of this country, and that 
their application may result in the much-needed improvement of the - 
appearance of the specimens found in the majority of our college 
museums. : 
It must be fully understood, however, that much depends upon the 
skill of the preparator, and that want of care and patience will fre- 
quently counteract all the advantages to be derived from a good 
1 Mitth. a. d. zool. Station zu Neapel, Bd. IX., Heft III. 
