[Nhcoll-l] Old Croone Day 2017

[John E Simmons]

*Old Croone Day is on Sunday, 04 June *



Because the 355th anniversary of Old Croone Day falls on a weekend this
year, I am sending out the announcement early.



Old Croone Day marks the anniversary of a significant event in the history
of natural history collections. It was on the fourth of June of 1662 that a
physician named Dr. William Croone showed “two embryos of puppy-dogs, which
he had kept eight days, and were put in spirit in a glass-vial sealed
hermetically” to the Royal Society of London. This is the first recorded
mention of fluid preservation of a scientific specimen.



Although the production of beverage alcohol goes well back into prehistory,
specimen preservation requires alcohol that is at least 100 proof (50%),
which can only be achieved by distillation. Knowledge of distillation
spread throughout Europe after the publication of *The Little Book of
Distillation* by Hieronymus Brunschwygk in 1500. By the time Croone
conducted his experiments, many London basements and backrooms housed
illicit stills that made strong alcohol out of barley mash.



Croone (sometimes spelled Croune) was born in London on 15 September 1633
and was awarded a degree from Emmanuel College (Cambridge) in 1650. In
1659, Croone was appointed Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College in
London, where he fell in with a small group of men interested in science
experiments, who then founded the Royal Society of London in 1662. Croone
was named “Doctor of Physic” by royal mandate at Cambridge in 1662, elected
a Fellow in the College of Physicians in 1675, and appointed by the
Barber-Surgeons' Company as an anatomy lecturer in 1670.



Croone developed a private medical practice but in his spare time he
conducted research on physiology, embryology, the circulation of blood,
respiration, the density of air, and the freezing of water. In 1664, he
famously choked a chicken until it appeared dead, then revived the bird by
inflating its lungs with fresh air through a glass pipe inserted down its
throat. Croone died in London on 12 October 1684, and (ironically) was
buried in the church of St Mildred, Poultry.



It was Croone’s interest in embryology that led him to discover fluid
preservation. In this same spirit of scientific curiosity and inquiry, I
invite you join me in celebrating 04 June this year with a fine single malt
whiskey to preserve good friendships and reflect on how often important
developments in science have come about when someone was trying to solve
some other problem.



Here’s to you, William Croone!



John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com
303-681-5708
www.museologica.com
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
and
Instructor, Museum Studies
School of Library and Information Science
Kent State University
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