On a new method of preserving snakes 
and other reptiles 
by 
Ma.i. P. A. Ouwens. 
Wheiiever I received for my eollectioii of reptiles a 
beautiful and very delicately coloiired s})ecimen, it al- 
ways was a cause of great annoyance to me, that the 
couloiirs would disappear a short time after the animal 
had been put into the preserving fluid. 
T therefore tiied numerons metliods of preservation 
one of which lias proved to be of some importance. 
I dare not say, that the coloiirs will keep for years^ 
hut at all events they keep long enoiigh to allow the 
animals to be sent as far as Europe, in a conditiën, that 
shows their natural brilliancy. Several species of snakes, 
treated more than a year ago in the way, described here 
after, have kept their natural colonrs nntil to-day. 
A few months ago Professor Dr. Neisser, Geheimer Me- 
dizinalrath of the Breslan University, when leaving Java^ 
had the kindness of taking with him a small collection 
of preserved reptiles, and destined them for Prof. Küken- 
thal. Directer of the Breslan Zoological Museum. 
Prof. Kükenthal, who was highly surprised at the state 
of preservation, in which the animals arrived, attested, 
as Prof. Neisser wrote to me, that he never in his life 
had seen such beautiful specimens, preserved with their 
delicate natural colours and begged me to publish my 
method. 
