[Nhcoll-l] Test for formalin

[A.J.van_Dam at lumc.nl]

Dear Mandy,

Another simplification: If you skip drawing the line and dip a tiny piece of the paper in the fluid, it will immediately sink in ethanol and keep floating for quite some time in formalin. It saves ink and also prevent the ink of the marker bleeding into your ethanol solution.

By the way, if you want to add a handwritten (with Indian ink) or printed label to aqueous preservation fluids like formalin and make sure that it sinks to the bottom of the jar quickly and stays there, first dip it in ethanol and then place it in the formalin.

Kind regards,

Dries


Andries J. van Dam | conservator

Museum of Anatomy | Leiden University Medical Center | Building 3 (V3-32)
P.O.Box 9600 | 2300 RC Leiden | The Netherlands
Visiting address: Hippocratespad 21 | Tel: +31 (0)71 52 68356 | E-mail: A.J.van_Dam at lumc.nl<mailto:A.J.van_Dam at lumc.nl>

Scientific associate | Natural History Museum London | http://www.nhm.ac.uk<http://www.nhm.ac.uk/>
________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l [nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] on behalf of Mandy Reid [Mandy.Reid at austmus.gov.au]
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2020 8:21 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [MOGELIJK SPAM ! ******] [Nhcoll-l] Test for formalin

Thank you to all the people who responded regarding testing for formalin when you are unsure whether a specimen is stored in ethanol or formalin (particularly problematic in historic museum specimens). I had an excellent idea sent to me by colleagues from NIWA (The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Wellington, New Zealand) that I would like to share. It is very simple, very inexpensive and it is very effective.

Simply draw a line of permanent marker on a strip of wet label paper. Dipped into a formalin solution, the marker stays intact. Dipped into an into an ethanol solution the marker starts running, or bleeding into the paper.

I tried it and it works perfectly. I have attached an image.

Cheers
Mandy

Dr Mandy Reid

Collection Manager, Malacology | Australian Museum Research Institute
Australian Museum  1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia
T 61 2 9320 6412 | M 61 431 829 842 | F 61 2 9320 6253

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D63508.E7EF52C0]

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

The Australian Museum acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum is located, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. The Museum aspires to celebrate, educate and preserve the diverse natural history and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.



[https://media.australianmuseum.net.au/media/dd/images/600x140px_EmailSignatures_ProjectDiscover_2v4.b.d0cdf0f.jpg] <https://australianmuseum.net.au/project-discover>

The Australian Museum email disclaimer

The views in this email are those of the user and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Museum. The information contained in this email message and any accompanying files is or may be confidential and is for the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, reliance, forwarding, printing or copying of this email or any attached files is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. The Australian Museum does not guarantee the accuracy of any information contained in this e-mail or attached files. As Internet communications are not secure, the Australian Museum does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message or attached files.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20200528/39a1eea5/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4897 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20200528/39a1eea5/attachment.jpg>