[Nhcoll-l] Advice on removing specimens from glass tubes
Fabian Neisskenwirth
info at naturhistorische-konservierung.de
Tue Mar 1 04:22:54 EST 2022
Hey Luisa,
I agree with Andrew's suggestion of placing them on ethafoam. I attached
a picture of some similar specimens I rehoused for storage in a school
collection in Wuppertal.
As long as the tubes show no leakage and the specimens are stable, I see
no reason of rehousing them. They look very well preserved to me. Of
course you should keep an eye on the cork/rubber stopper.
... and to James question,
the method that John points out works very well. I did it using a
portable Raman-Spectrometer provided by Ocean Insight
(https://www.oceaninsight.com/products/measurement--technique-bundles/raman-bundle-785/?qty=1)
during my master thesis on the conservation of fluid preserved
specimens. I encourage everyone who could afford such analysis to try it
out, we need a big spectral library of references so its easier to
identify possible preservation fluids ;>)
For more info get in contact with Sophie.
All best,
Am 28.02.22 um 23:06 schrieb John E Simmons:
> A recent paper has reported on the use of Raman spectrometry for this
> purpose, but you need the right lab equipment to do use it. Sophie
> Cersoy demonstrated the technique for us in Paris during the 2018
> fluid collection conference, and her paper is now available:
>
> S. Cersoy, V. Rouchon, O. Belhadj, J. Cuisin, and M. Herbin. 2020.
> Noninvasive fluid identification: potential of micro-Raman
> spectroscopy. /Collection Forum/ 34(1):53-72
>
> --John
>
> 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
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 5:00 PM James Bryant <jbandjb at live.com> wrote:
>
> Turtox! Fascinating, John. I agree that it would be useful to know
> how old these preparations might be. If they’ve remained stable
> this long, I can’t imagine there are many other reasons to disturb
> them.
>
> Perhaps I’ve just not recalling things, but are there any
> instrumental methods to analyze the content of solutions used in
> fluid collections without disturbing the containers?
>
> James Bryant
> SOJOURN Science - Nature - Education
> Santa Fe, NM
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bryant-0598a940/
>
>
>> On Feb 28, 2022, at 1:00 PM, John E Simmons
>> <simmons.johne at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> This technique was published in Turtox News 15(10:129 in October
>> of 1937 in an anonymous short article with the title "A method of
>> displaying snakes." The article includes a photograph of a rack
>> holding a number of long tubes with preserved snakes stretched
>> out in them, sent in by "Professor John M. Frazier of the State
>> Teachers College, Hattiesburg Mississippi." Prof. Frazier
>> reported that "The snakes are injected with formalin-alcohol
>> preservative and are hardened instraight and extended position.
>> They are then inserted in the glass tubes, the ends of which are
>> sealed with cork or rubber stoppers and coated with paraffin
>> after the tubes have been completely filled with the preserving
>> solution."
>>
>> There were several "formalin-alcohol preservative" mixtures that
>> were popular at the time, the idea being that you could reduce
>> the two-steps of fixation and preservation into one. These
>> mixtures were not successful because the chemical actions of the
>> formaldehyde and alcohol interfered with each other, resulting in
>> uneven preservation as tissues were dehydrated. For example, one
>> mixture called for 95ml of 70% ETOH and 5 ml of formaldehyde;
>> another for 50 parts alcohol, 5 parts formaldehyde, and 45 parts
>> water. It may also refer to what was more commonly called FAA,
>> which was formaldehyde, alcohol, and acetic acid.
>>
>> You cannot tell just by looking what solution the specimens are
>> in, but I expect it is alcohol due to the discoloration
>> (formaldehyde does not extract lipids as readily as alcohol).
>> However, I would handle these as if they did contain formaldehyde
>> and take appropriate precautions until you are sure. The problem
>> with re-housing the specimens will be that they are going to be
>> very stiff and it will be difficult to coil them up without
>> damaging them. If they are not leaking, and you do not need to
>> remove the specimens for examination, I would leave them as they
>> are but house the tubes in a way that will reduce the chance of
>> breakage, such as in a box or tray with half-rounds of cardboard
>> to keep them from rolling or touching each other. They are an
>> excellent example of an old technique that was rather quaint.
>>
>> Any idea when the specimens were preserved?
>>
>> --John
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 2:02 PM Luisa Zamora Chavez
>> <lzamorac at asu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have a few liquid-preserved snakes in glass tubes that were
>> donated to our collections sometime ago. The tubes are sealed
>> shut using what appears to be plastic corks, tape, and
>> sealant. We're not sure if the liquid they're in is formalin
>> or something other than ethanol.
>>
>> I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with this
>> sort of preservation and any advice on how to transfer the
>> specimens to a more stable mode? We'd like to keep some of
>> them but fear the tubes might break. We are unsure of what
>> liquid is typically used for this type of preservation and
>> would like to be as prepared as possible so we can
>> safely remove them from the tubes (if that is at all
>> possible). I have included some pictures of the specimens for
>> reference. Any help is greatly appreciated!
>>
>> Kind regards,
>> Luisa
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Luisa Zamora Chavez *
>> Pronouns: she/they
>> Research Technician
>> Arizona State University Biocollections
>> Lzamorac at asu.edu
>> 602-737-8357
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>> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
>> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
>> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and
>> management of
>> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
>> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. Seehttp://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
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