[NHCOLL-L:3911] Re: Changing preservatives from Isopropanol to Ethanol

[John E Simmons]

Kelly,
As with so many things in fluid preservation, there is not much data to help
you on this.  Switching from isopropyl to ethanol may cause significant
shrinkage of specimens and possibly other damage, based on the comments in
Jones and Owen (1987), and there is a  pretty good literature on the changes
in body proportions of specimens in preservation (I reviewed a lot of these
in Simmons, 1993).  As for protocol, I recommend basing the protocol on the
experiences of Laframboise et al (1993).

Jones, E.M. and R.D. Owen.  1987.  Fluid preservation of specimens.  Pp
51-63 in Genoways, H.H., C. Jones, and O.L. Rossolimo (editors).  Mammal
Collections Management.  Texas Tech University Press.

Laframboise, S., R.M. Rankin, and M.M.L. Steigerwald.  1993.  Managing
change: alcohol transfer at the Canadian Museum of Nature.  Pp. 28-33 in
Snyder, A.M. (editor).  The 1992 American Society of Ichthyologists and
Herpetologists Workshop on Collections Care and Management Issues.

Simmons, J.E.  1993.  Blythe spirits: problems and potentials of fluid
preservation.  Pp. 12-27 in Snyder, A.M. (editor).  The 1992 American
Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Workshop on Collections Care
and Management Issues.

--John

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com
303-681-5708
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
19 Deike Building
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-2709
jes67 at psu.edu

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 2:58 PM, Sendall, Kelly RBCM:EX <
KSENDALL at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca> wrote:

>  Our museum's fluid collections in Natural History include a substantial
> amount of specimens in isopropanol. We are considering transferring all
> those into 70% ethanol.
> Does anyone have experience with this?
> Does anyone know of any websites or publications to investigate?
> **
> *Kelly Sendall*
> Manager of Natural History, Royal BC Museum
> 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC V8W 9W2
> ' 250.387.3544
> 6 250.387.0534
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