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“dry rot” it is sometimes advisable to remove those parts of the specimen 
which are most seriously affected and burn them. The parts removed 
may in some cases be restored with new material, if the appearance of the 
specimen w'ould otherwise be misleading. Solutions of chemicals in water 
are often recommended as fungicides. Though these may be satisfactory 
in commercial practice, the wetting of museum specimens cannot always 
be recommended. 
Wet Wood. When wooden objects are actually lying in water at the 
time of collection or are found in very wet soil, they should be shipped to 
the museum in water. Moss may be used in sufficient quantities to prevent 
movement of the specimen and the quantity of moss so regulated as to secure 
a degree of humidity as nearly as possible equal to that in which the speci- 
mens were found. A small quantity of wood alcohol, not more than 10 
per cent, may be added as a temporary preservative. When the specimens 
are received at the museum they should be soaked in baths of wood alcohol 
diluted with w Y ater, of gradually increasing strength, as follows: 25 per 
cent, 50 per cent, 75 per cent, 95 per cent, and pure wood alcohol. About 
two days in each bath will be required. After the bath in pure alcohol, 
the objects are to be transferred, without drying, to a bath of xylol (xylene) 
for another two days. The xylol bath is then repeated with fresh xylol for 
another two days, and the specimens are then suspended in melted paraffin 
wax in a water bath or “double-boiler.” They should be allowed to remain 
in the hot paraffin for several hours, then removed and allowed to cool. 
Any excess paraffin may be removed, after the wax has solidified, with a 
little benzine on a cloth or brush. The paraffin wax will darken the wood 
to some extent, but this is seldom a disadvantage, as water-soaked speci- 
mens are likely to be dark in colour in any case. If desired, the specimens 
may be transferred from the xylol to a celluloid in acetone bath (cold) 
instead of the paraffin. This gives a more durable specimen, and one, 
moreover, which will not leave paraffin wax stains when it is placed on an 
exhibition case diaphragm. 
Large Wooden Objects. Restoration of totem poles and other large 
wooden objects, such as house-posts, which are to be left in the field, 
exposed to the weather, is an undertaking that requires special apparatus 
and experience. Mr. Harlan I. Smith, archajologist, has done much of this 
work and his methods appear to have been entirely successful. The poles 
were found in many cases to have fallen ; in other cases they were in danger 
of doing so, owing to rotting below the ground-level. 
When the pole to be treated was still standing, it was supported in an 
A-frame by means of ropes. Chafing was avoided by wrapping the pole 
with burlap where the ropes touched it. The pole was then sawn off at 
the ground-level and lowered to the ground, where it was supported on 
cross timbers. A channel about a foot wide and a foot deep was excavated 
along the back of the pole for a distance of half or two-thirds of its length. 
In the channel thus prepared a new timber, cut to fit snugly, was laid and 
bolted to the pole with bolts running from side to side and from front to 
back. The heads of the bolts and the nuts were sunk in square sockets in 
the pole which were subsequently filled with plugs so that the bolts would 
not be conspicuous. The new pole thus laid into the old one was allowed 
to extend about 6 feet beyond the butt, and this protruding part was set 
in cement in a pit dug to receive it. Temporary struts were fastened 
