Artistic and scientific taxidermy and modelling : a manual of instruction in the methods of preserving and reproducing the correct form of all natural objects, including a chapter on the modelling of foliage / by Montagu Browne ... with 22 full-page illustrations and 11 illustrations in text.

  • Browne, Montagu.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Artistic and scientific taxidermy and modelling : a manual of instruction in the methods of preserving and reproducing the correct form of all natural objects, including a chapter on the modelling of foliage / by Montagu Browne ... with 22 full-page illustrations and 11 illustrations in text. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/526 (page 45)
    Amongst the Cephalopoda, Lo Bianco (p. 469) has found that small octopods are readily narcotised by a 2 per thousand solution, followed by their immediate immersion in alcohol, and although occasionally they contract and hide their bodies with their arms, yet after death it is easy to place them in a natural position. Small Decapods are managed in like manner, with the in- tervention of alcoholised sea-water (Formula 2) between the chloral hydrate and definitive alcohol. Some of the Ascidians, such as Molgula^ Polycarpa^ Rhopalea^ and Chevreulius {Rhodosonid), are left for twelve hours in a I per thousand solution to narcotise them, then killed by the chrom-acetic mixture (Formula 38), and after that hardened for a short time in a i per cent, solution of chromic acid. The advantages of these solutions are, that they narcotise various animals, and also that if, after a certain time, an animal does not assume the position desired, it is possible to revive it by replacing it in sea-water, after which it can be re-narcotised in a more favourable position. They are also used for fixing and killing the animals composing colonies of SerpulcE and Madre- poria. Formal or Formalin (= 40 per cent, formic aldehyd and 60 per cent, water).—This is valuable as an antiseptic, and is also used—usually in the following proportion—as a preserva- tive :— 31.—Solution for various Preservative Purposes Formol . . . . .5 parts Water (distilled) . . . • 95 This is said to preserve perfectly the form and colours of animals; it has, however, been tried for some fishes, invertebrata, and marine algae in the Leicester Museum, and, although ap- parently a first-class preservative, it discharged the natural colours at once. It is now being tried with other subjects, and