[Nhcoll-l] Old Croone Day 2020

[John E Simmons]

*Old Croone Day, 04 June 2020*



Once again it is Old Croone Day, the international holiday on which we
celebrate the anniversary of the first recorded mention of the preservation
of scientific specimens in alcohol. It was on 04 June of 1662 that Dr.
William Croone (1633-1684) demonstrated before the Royal Society of London
“two embryos of puppy-dogs, which he had kept eight days, and were put in
spirit in a glass-vial sealed hermetically.”



A graduate of Emmanuel College at Cambridge, Croone (sometimes spelled
Croune) was a professor at Gresham College in London when he was invited to
join a select group of people interested in science experiments, which
became the Royal Society of London in 1662. Croone was later an anatomy
lecturer and Fellow of the College of Physicians. Croone’s main interests
were physics, physiology (particularly the circulation of blood and muscle
movement), and embryology—it was the latter that led to his discovery of
fluid preservation.



When the Royal Society was forced to suspend its meetings due to the Plague
in 1665, Croone traveled to Montpellier to meet the Danish anatomist,
Nicolas Steno (Niels Steensen, 1638-1686). The following year, after
dissecting a giant shark, Steno became the first scientist to prove that
“tongue stones” were really fossilized shark teeth.



In this same spirit of curiosity, inquiry, and diversion during a plague,
you are invited to hoist a glass of your favorite beverage on 04 June and
toast the preservation of good friendships as we bask in the pleasure of
finding things out.



Here’s to you, Dr. William Croone!

[PDF illustrated mini-poster of Old Croone Day announcement attached]

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
*and*
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
*and*
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima
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