[Nhcoll-l] Fluid preservation: what is Triple Fix?

Fri Jan 20 13:21:14 EST 2023

Thanks, Simon. There are recommendations in the literature for using FAA as
a routine fixative/preservative, without mention of its use as a
cytological fixative.

--John

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
*and*
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
*and*
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 12:41 PM Simon Moore <couteaufin at btinternet.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Claire,
>
> Then I wonder why they would needed to have used a triple fixative unless
> it was part of someone’s PhD project but then there would have been some
> dissecting or part of the specimen/s missing? Maybe working on the
> neurophysiology of chaetal extrusion - once can theorise!
>
> With all good wishes, Simon
>
> Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
> Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,
>
> www.natural-history-conservation.com
>
>
> > On 20 Jan 2023, at 17:21, Claire Smith <c.e.smith at pgr.reading.ac.uk>
> wrote:
> >
> > Thank you John and Simon!
> > The specimen is zoological - marine annelids.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Claire
> >
> > *******
> > Claire Smith (she/her)
> > PhD Candidate: Colour retention in fluid-preserved museum specimens
> > Graduate Teaching Assistant, Cole Museum of Zoology (Wednesdays)
> > c.e.smith at pgr.reading.ac.uk
> > claire.smith at reading.ac.uk
> > www.twitter.com/wetconservatrix
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Simon Moore <couteaufin at btinternet.com>
> > Sent: 20 January 2023 17:07
> > To: John E Simmons <simmons.johne at gmail.com>
> > Cc: Claire Smith <c.e.smith at pgr.reading.ac.uk>; NHCOLL-new <
> nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> > Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Fluid preservation: what is Triple Fix?
> >
> > Thanks John and yes, FAA would be another and usually associated with
> plants or as a cytological fixative like Carnoy's fluid.   The
> compositional fixatives are endless and there was a phase of many
> anatomists, histologists and other preparators inventing their own formulae
> from the late 19th into the 1920s, perhaps to be helpful but (also likely)
> to get 'their names in lights'!
> > FAA stinks if you get near it (yuk!) but is a clear and uncoloured
> fluid.
> >
> > What sort of specimen is it - zoo, bot, histology, cytology...?
> >
> > With all good wishes, Simon
> >
> > Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
> > Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,
> >
> >
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.natural-history-conservation.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cc.e.smith%40pgr.reading.ac.uk%7C8bce5bf04ba54218f89608dafb08c9c2%7C4ffa3bc4ecfc48c09080f5e43ff90e5f%7C0%7C0%7C638098312402233802%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qWBH6woxpH2gNjocAJ1SuX5DXJNZ1YWpX%2BLaspDLdTg%3D&reserved=0
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> On 20 Jan 2023, at 16:46, John E Simmons <simmons.johne at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Simon Moore can correct me if I am wrong, but my guess is that the
> "triple fix" refers to what was commonly known as FAA, an attempt to make a
> "universal fixative" or a "universal killing and fixing agent."
> >>
> >> There were many variations of the formula promoted by botanists and
> >> zoologists, each involving differing amounts of formaldehyde, acetic
> >> acid, and alcohol. The idea was that you could use this solution to
> >> fix and preserve tissues at the same time in the field, and some
> >> authors even recommended using it as a long-term fixative. However,
> >> Dempster (1960:69) cautioned that chemically, it does not work,
> >> because "the fixing reagents in a mixture do not penetrate the tissue
> >> en masse, but... each reagent penetrates tissue in a characteristic
> >> sequence." FAA was mentioned in at least one edition of the Kew The
> >> Herbarium Handbook with the warning that it "makes specimens brittle"
> >> (Forman and Bridson 1989:72)
> >>
> >> The exact formulas varied from one author to another. A fairly typical
> mixture was 6.5 cc formaldehyde, 2.5 cc glacial acetic acid, and 100 cc of
> 50% alcohol; another version of FAA was 90 parts ethanol, 5 parts glacial
> acetic acid, and 5 parts formalin. In the UK, it was typically
> formaldehyde, industrial methylated spirit (which is a form of denatured
> ethanol), and acetic acid.
> >>
> >> I have listed as many variations of the formula as I could find in
> Table 1 of Fluid Preservation: A Comprehensive Reference (2014), along with
> a reference to their publication.
> >>
> >> [Dempster, W. T. 1960. Rates of penetration of fixing fluids. American
> >> Journal of Anatomy, 107:59-72]
> >>
> >> --John
> >>
> >> John E. Simmons
> >> Writer and Museum Consultant
> >> Museologica
> >> and
> >> Associate Curator of Collections
> >> Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery Penn State University
> >> and Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia Museo de
> >> Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 11:13 AM Claire Smith <
> c.e.smith at pgr.reading.ac.uk> wrote:
> >> Hi everyone,
> >>
> >> One of our students has come across a fluid specimen in our teaching
> collection that is preserved in "Triple Fix" - does anybody know what that
> is?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Many thanks for your help,
> >>
> >> Claire
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> *******
> >>
> >> Claire Smith (she/her)
> >>
> >> Graduate Teaching Assistant & PhD Candidate, Cole Museum of Zoology
> >> c.e.smith at pgr.reading.ac.uk claire.smith at reading.ac.uk
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> >>
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> >> 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
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