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<p>Dear Emily,</p>
<p>please bare in mind that turpentine, as other essential oils, are
not missile in water. As Simon stated, you will get a emulsion (in
the worst case just a mess of fluids) in the jar if there is water
added to the ethanol. The best would of course to try to make some
fluid analysis (FTIR, Raman or GC-MS) to know exactly what you
have there.</p>
<p>And definitely leave it in the fluid. A transfer into some
water-based fluid will probably cause you trouble.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>All the best!<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 10.04.24 um 09:56 schrieb Simon
Moore:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:91F3E743-9AC7-4D4E-A687-D3945312B3F9@btinternet.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Hi Emily,
As John suggested, I have worked with turpentine in the William Hunter anatomical collection (c. 1750) in Glasgow some years ago. This was used for preserving transparency specimens, whether mercury injected (as John stated) or for tissue samples that had been injected with a red dye but the turpentine was used as a clearing agent to render the tissues transparent and worked very well. I also happen to prefer the smell of it as opposed to methyl benzoate or many of the other aromatic transparency media.
If the specimens are in good condition, I would go with John’s suggestion of maintaining the 50:50 mix with alcohol but ensure that the alcohol is undiluted or you will get an emulsion if you use 50% alcohol (diluted with water)! However, if your policy is one for ’solely 70% ethanol preservative’ then I would still consider using the mixture as I don’t like to change fluids that have been in use for years, provided the specimens are in good condition and it makes a historically interesting feature for the collection.
With all good wishes, Simon
Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian.
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.natural-history-conservation.com">www.natural-history-conservation.com</a>
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">On 10 Apr 2024, at 01:23, John E Simmons <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:simmons.johne@gmail.com"><simmons.johne@gmail.com></a> wrote:
Emily,
Turpentine has two historic uses in fluid collections, as a preservative (usually diluted with alcohol) and as a component of jar seals. Its use goes back quite a ways. In 1664 the proceedings of the Royal Society record that Boyle had used a mixture of spirit of wine (ethyl alcohol) and turpentine to preserve some specimens, and turpentine was one of the fluid preservatives mentioned by Grew in the Royal Society collection at Gresham College [“A young CHICKEN emboweled and put into rectified Oil of Turpentine..." (Grew 1681:58)]. Later, it was often used for anatomical specimens, and in mercury injections.
There are three courses of action you could take:
1-Continue to top the container up with the 50:50 mixture of alcohol and turpentine (but my guess is that the concentration of the alcohol used is unknown?)
2-Top up with 70% ethanol.
3-Change the preservative to 70% ethanol.
If the specimens have been in the solution for a very long time, my inclination would be to leave them as they are (in the mixture) or, if you don't want to get involved with mixing up a special preservative for these specimens, top up the existing fluid with 70% ethanol.
Simon Moore may have other suggestions.
--John
John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
and
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima
On Tue, Apr 9, 2024 at 6:39 PM Emily M. Braker <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:emily.braker@colorado.edu"><emily.braker@colorado.edu></a> wrote:
Greetings All,
We just surfaced a couple of vials of lemming GI tracts preserved in “50% turpentine, 50% alcohol” that were stored in a drawer alongside the associated skins and skulls in our mammal collection. A database check reveals that these specimens were originally fluid-preserved, then later prepared as skins and skulls in 1953, though the GI tracts appear to have been saved in the original solution.
Has anyone worked with a turpentine/alcohol solution before and have advice on how we should approach transitioning to ethanol and/or topping up? The fluid level is extremely low in the vials.
Thanks!
Emily
Emily Braker
Vertebrate Collections Manager, Zoology Section
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
265 UCB, Bruce Curtis Building
Boulder, CO 80309-0218
Phone: 303-492-8466
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.colorado.edu/cumuseum/research-collections/vertebrates">http://www.colorado.edu/cumuseum/research-collections/vertebrates</a>
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