[Nhcoll-l] Transferring specimens from 70% alcohol into water for scientific drawing, and back again....

[Callomon,Paul]

A commercial product that might work for this is Carosafe:
www.carolina.com/teacher-resources/Interactive/specimens-in-carafe-product-and-safety-information-for-educators/tr11091.tr<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.carolina.com_teacher-2Dresources_Interactive_specimens-2Din-2Dcarafe-2Dproduct-2Dand-2Dsafety-2Dinformation-2Dfor-2Deducators_tr11091.tr&d=AwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=THqNSwubgsbE1YpRJzzmALBR8Tog9RWC4ehIL6bzRns&s=VPiqTIkWIqguSo015Z0PTyMjy7_eEowLRXNgKWJJzus&e= >

PC

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
callomon at ansp.org<mailto:callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170



From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Simon Moore
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2015 10:58 AM
To: Esther Dondorp
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Transferring specimens from 70% alcohol into water for scientific drawing, and back again....

Hi Esther,

Yes, dunking amphibians from 70% alcohol to water and then back again may result in some osmotic shock.  Have you considered 10% Opresol (in deion. water).  It's non-flammable, non-toxic (also non-intoxicating) &c but is one of the glycol-based preservatives, so many are a little shy of using it.  Bear in mind that large vertebrates do not survive well in glycol preservatives after 5 years so it shouldn't be used as a long-term preservative in this context.  Afterwards they may be returned to 70% alc. via the usual dehydration ladder.

With all good wishes, Simon.

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,
www.natural-history-conservation.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.natural-2Dhistory-2Dconservation.com&d=AwMF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=-R4CRTNmZTa_F1TJCOzyw6BNsmBDRR8Do5v15erPSYc&s=IQ1avMuCnX3m_7dJrkLW9I5V7pAxPBSCcJ8AaMMCxrY&e=>



On 3 Aug 2015, at 15:46, Esther Dondorp <esther.dondorp at naturalis.nl<mailto:esther.dondorp at naturalis.nl>> wrote:


Dear All,

We have a project for which our scientific illustrator needs to draw salamanders/frogs from the spirit collection. The specimens are stored in 70% alcohol (some of them probably have been fixed in formalin before but I am not sure) and during the drawing process they take them out of the jar and submerge them in water. This can take hours. I think this is not good for the specimens and will damage them eventually, also because after that we put them into 70% alcohol again. This will be quite a shock to the tissue I guess. But because they always did it like this, I started doubting myself. What do you think?

Would there be some other substance to put the specimens in during the drawing process that would be less damaging for the specimens and also not intoxicate the illustrator? Or maybe we could use a lower percentage of alcohol?

Many thanks, any comment on this appreciated.

Esther Dondorp

Collection manager Reptiles and Amphibians,  Naturalis





_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
http://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 https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.spnhc.org&d=AwIFAg&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=THqNSwubgsbE1YpRJzzmALBR8Tog9RWC4ehIL6bzRns&s=wjePz7j08n9lhUyHfgPLyOSDFft-rVjUJ7aPE2r43aY&e=  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/20150803/9ac8933c/attachment.html