[NHCOLL-L:2866] FW: Question on older museum preservatives

[Marla Coppolino]

Dear Colleagues,

Would anyone be able to help answer the following inquiry?



I have a museum related question that I am hoping that you may be able to
 >help with.  I recently was given the task by Acadia National Park to
 >catalog a collection of insects and invertebrates that were originally
 >collected on Mount Desert Island, Maine back in the early 1900s (William
 >Procter's Mount Desert Island Regional Survey).  During the first phase of
 >this project over the next year, I will be focusing attention on the wet
 >marine invertebrate specimens in the collection. We are going to replace
 >the vials to ones with better seals on the lids, rehydrate dried out
 >specimens, update all to a 70% ethanol preservative, update the synonymy,
 >and fully catalog the collection.
 >
 >I have been doing some tests on the existing preservative in the vials of
 >these marine invertebrates and have not been able to identify the
 >preservative.  I found trace amounts of formaldehyde, suggesting this was
 >the original fixative.  The preservative appears to be some type of alcohol
 >(based on smell and the fact that the fumes sink to the floor), but tests
 >of the substance with a refractometer (refractive index = 1.39 - 1.40) put
 >us off the chart for ethanol or isopropyl alcohols.  Checking the density
 >of the liquid also confused me as it was at about 1.003; much too heavy
 >unless the % alcohol concentration is 20% or below.    Do you have any
 >suggestions on the typical preservative used for marine invertebrates back
 >in the 1920's (these were collected between 1926 and
 >1932)?  Any  information would be most helpful as we track down our options.
 >
 >Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give with this.  I look
 >forward to your response.
 >
 >Best Wishes... Glen
 >
 >Glen Mittelhauser
 >Maine Natural History Observatory
 >327 Guzzle Road
 >Gouldsboro, Maine 04607
 >(207)963-2012
 >glenm at acadia.net


Marla L. Coppolino
Scientific Assistant
Division of Invertebrate Zoology, Section Malacology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY  10024-5192
E-mail:  marlacop at amnh.org
http://research.amnh.org/invertzoo/malacology/personnel/coppolino.html
Tel:  212-769-5720
Fax: 212-769-5277