[Nhcoll-l] Old Croone Day

[John E Simmons]

*Old Croone Day, 04 June *



Once again it is Old Croone Day, an international holiday that celebrates
the anniversary of a significant event in the history of natural history
collections— *the first recorded mention of the preservation of scientific
specimens in alcohol*. It was on 04 June 1662 that 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” before the Royal Society
of London.



Croone (1633-1684) graduated from from Emmanuel College (Cambridge) in 1650
and was appointed Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College in London in
1659. While there he joined a group interested in science experiments and
helped launch the Royal Society of London in 1662. Croone was later appointed
an anatomy lecturer by the Barber-Surgeons' Company, and elected a Fellow
in the College of Physicians in 1675.



Croone conducted research on physiology, the circulation of blood,
respiration, the density of air, and the freezing of water, but it was his
interest in embryology that led him to accidentally discover fluid
preservation. In this same spirit of scientific curiosity and inquiry, you
are invited to celebrate 04 June every year with a glass of your favorite
beverage, make a toast to preserve good friendships, reflect on how many
important developments in science have come about when someone was trying
to solve some other problem.



Cheers, Dr. William Croone!



John E. Simmons
US Fulbright Senior Scholar
Writer and Museum Consultant, Museologica
*and*
Research Associate, Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery, Penn
State University
*and*
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitología, Museo de Historia
Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima
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