[Nhcoll-l] Advice on removing specimens from glass tubes

Tue Mar 1 14:33:52 EST 2022

In Amphibians and Reptiles at the Field Museum, we were gifted a collection
of preserved herps that was displayed in a home. The son of the fellow who
made the accumulation said that his father kept live herps and preserved
them after their deaths. Based on the species included, the collection was
built starting in the 1950's and 1960's. The father worked at some point in
commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing and had access to discarded
glassware. Attached is a photo of a Drymarchon (in thick ca. 60 cm long
glass tube stoppered with rubber plugs), a Dracaena (in large
rubber-stoppered test tube-shaped bottle), and an Iguana. A 48 cm. ruler is
in foreground. A number of smaller, thinner glass tubes stoppered with wax
sealed corks were also in the collection. The large tubes were well sealed.
The smaller ones with cork stoppers were empty or only partially full of
liquid. It took us a few years to build up the courage to open the large
tubes and change the fluid. We drained the tubes by removing original
stoppers, did a water soak, and stepped up the specimens in ethanol. As is
our custom after transfers, we monitored the ethanol concentrations for 2
or 3 weeks and added 95% ethanol until the concentration stayed at 70%.
When reinserting the original rubber stoppers, we held the tubes vertically
and filled each to near where the bottom of the stopper would seat. We
placed a thin strand of strong thread between the stopper and the side of
the container. The thread was a short distance into the ethanol. The
stopper was slowly pressed into the neck of the container as the thread was
withdrawn. This allowed air to escape. We didn't practice with
non-essential glassware ahead of time but this might be a good idea. We
have not noticed any leakage over about 7 years. As Fabian and Andy
mentioned, we made ethafoam saddles to support the tubes.

John mentioned Turtox. General Biological Supply House in Chicago used the
trade name "Turtox." See
https://history.archives.mbl.edu/browse/exhibits/using-biodiversity/supply-sale/general-biological-supply-house-turtox-products-1913
Attached
is a photo of an embryological series prepared by GBSH. The container is
still well sealed after many decades.

*Alan Resetar*
Associate, Gantz Family Collections Center
Field Museum
1400 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL 60605
fieldmuseum.org

Check out our collection website at
http://fieldmuseum.org/explore/department/zoology/amphibians-and-reptiles
and our collection database at
http://collections-zoology.fieldmuseum.org/list?f%5B0%5D=ss_CatCatalog%3A%22Amphibians%20and%20Reptiles%22
<((((( ·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´ ° >---
<       ~~>>))))));>

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 4:07 PM John E Simmons <simmons.johne at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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>> 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
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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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