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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON), [VOL. XII. 



glycerine ? I have long thought, and even reported in one 

 of my Administration Reports, that the gum was the colour 

 preserver, and that the glycerine acted first by dehydrating 

 the animal and then by excluding air and water. I was led 

 to this conclusion by the fact that the addition of water 

 destroyed the colours, as I imagined, by again extracting 

 the gum from the tissues. But I am now convinced this is 

 not the case : the action of the gum is to harden the 

 tissues against the softening influence of the glycerine ; the 

 real colour preserver is the glycerine, and it preserves because 

 it excludes air and water. 



Amongst some fish presented a great many years ago 

 by Mr. H. C. P. Bell, C.C.S., was a specimen of a red sea 

 perch (specimen H) in arrack, which had a bit of its bright 

 red colour left where it was tightly pressed against the 

 glass. This specimen had always had a great fascination for 

 me, as it is a species in which the colour fades in a few 

 hours. The idea of finding some process by which animals 

 would be shut up in some kind of solid led me to try 

 hardened Canada balsam. J is a Telyphonus, mounted in a 

 solid glass made by evaporating Canada balsam to dryness 

 and then re-melting it, and pouring it over the animal. The 

 heat, however, is too great to make it an available process,, 

 and the exhibited specimens are the only successes I ever 

 obtained. It was prepared in 1883. Now the fact is the 

 glycerine, by excluding air and water, does act as a solid 

 glass, and the only influence at work to bleach the specimen 

 is light, which, curious to say, as the exhibited specimens 

 show, does not seem to have much effect. A has been 

 exposed to the full influence of a tropical light ever since 

 1884. Reflecting on this action it occurred to me, if the 

 exclusion of air and moisture is the great ideal to aim at, 

 could not some substance of a lighter specific gravity than 

 glycerine be found ? Why not some kind of oil ? and of 

 course in Ceylon cocoanut oil first suggested itself. But 

 cocoanut oil, far from being likely to be a preservative, would 

 require preserving itself. How was this to be done ? Would 



