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

[Alan Resetar]

The Field Museum has a collection of preserved herps that was displayed in
a home. The son of the homeowner said that his dad kept live herps and
preserved them after death. Based on the species included, the collection
dates from the 1950's and 1960's. The father worked in drug manufacturing
and had access to discarded glassware. Attached photo shows a Drymarchon
(in 60 cm. glass tube with rubber plugs), a Dracaena (in test tube-shaped
bottle), and an Iguana. Shorter, thinner glass tubes with waxed corks were
empty or partially full of liquid. The larger tubes were well sealed. It
took us a few years to build up the courage to open them  We drained them
by removing stoppers, did a water soak, and stepped up in ethanol. We
monitored concentrations for 2 or 3 weeks adding 95% ethanol until
concentration stayed at 70%. To reinsert stoppers, we held tubes vertically
filling each to near where the bottom of the stopper seats. We placed a
thin strand of thread between stoppers and sides of containers. The stopper
was slowly pressed into opening while withdrawing thread allowing air to
escape. We made ethafoam supports. Leakage has not been noted.

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




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
<((((( ·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´ ° >---
<       ~~>>))))));>


Show quoted text

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 2:01 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
>> _______________________________________________
>> Nhcoll-l mailing list
>> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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.
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220302/a5515beb/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_20220228_171850629.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2351506 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20220302/a5515beb/attachment-0001.jpg>