[Nhcoll-l] Bouin's formula

[Callomon,Paul]

Bouin's is a prep fluid that enhances nerves and other such things in dissections. I don't think it's supposed to be a long-term preservative.
Many years ago we had a full bomb-squad callout for some partially desiccated Bouin's. They closed down I-95 to transport the bottle to a safe location and blew it up. I asked an expert lab chemist of my long acquaintance about that and he said "Silly buggers - they could have just put it in a sink full of water and waited a week."
Paul Callomon
________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Bernhard-leopold.bock at uni-jena.de <Bernhard-leopold.bock at uni-jena.de>
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2022 4:05:32 PM
To: Simon Moore <couteaufin at btinternet.com>; Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace) <Tonya.Haff at csiro.au>
Cc: NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Bouin's formula


External.

Dear Simon and Tonya,

we also have some old specimen in Bouins. I did not touch them yet, but hope to in the near future. Do you know if there is a way to transfere them into other solutions to get rid of the bouin? What I can tell that few years ago a student brought a salamander which was fixated in bouin and he later stored in Alkohol, this specimen turned completely brittle and started to flake into pieces.

With best regards
Bernd


-------- Ursprüngliche Nachricht --------
Von: Simon Moore <couteaufin at btinternet.com>
Datum: Do., 17. Nov. 2022, 01:58
An: "Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace)" <Tonya.Haff at csiro.au>
Cc: NHCOLL-new <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Betreff: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Bouin's formula
Hi Tonya,

I used to deal with Bouin’s fluid back in my histology days.  The only slight risk is if the picric acid content has dried to yellow crystals and you have screw top jars.  The picric acid is a tri-nitrate so yes, it’s unstable and might spark a bit in this situation.  If this is so, then immerse the jars in cold water so that the picric acid goes back into solution and is then quite safe.  I have had dry picric acid situations like this before and this method has always worked well and no fireworks!

With all good wishes, Simon

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,

www.natural-history-conservation.com




> On 16 Nov 2022, at 23:31, Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace) <Tonya.Haff at csiro.au> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> We have quite a few specimens (mostly macropod pouch young, turtle embryos and turtle organs) that have been preserved in Bouin’s formula, which contains picric acid. I know that picric acid is explosive on impact, and so we are wary of the potential risk that the jars of those specimens may pose. However, I don’t have any real understanding of what the actual risk of explosion might be… should these specimens and their jars be disposed of because opening them poses too much of a risk, or are the levels of picric acid so insignificant as to not pose a risk? Or is there some halfway point, but a way of safely opening the jars without calling the bomb squad? If any of you have thoughts or experience with this I would really appreciate it!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tonya
>
> -------------------------------------------------
> Dr. Tonya M. Haff
> Collection Manager
> Australian National Wildlife Collection
> CSIRO
> +61(0)419569109
> https://www.csiro.au/en/about/facilities-collections/collections/anwc
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/20221117/06a58665/attachment.html>