The specimen should be kept in a jar or other vessel and should be completely immersed beneath the one per cent. formalin. Any parts projecting above the fluid may be attacked by mould. If a part is found to be moulded, it should be submerged, when the mould will be killed. The mould injures the specimen if allowed to grow for a long time, but if discovered soon, no very serious harm results.
During dissection, exposed parts of the body should be kept from drying by covering with a damp cloth. Specimens preserved in formalin dry out much less quickly than those preserved in alcohol.
2. For some purposes it is much more convenient to preserve the material without immersing it in a vessel of formalin. Specimens injected with five per cent. formalin, as above directed, would usually keep perfectly without further treatment, but for two difficulties: (1) the specimen may dry; (2) it may be attacked by mould.
The drying may be prevented as follows: Use for injecting a mixture of the five per cent. formalin with one-sixth its volume of glycerine. This will dry only very slowly, and if pains are taken to keep exposed parts covered with cloths dampened with the mixture of formalin and glycerine, there will be no trouble from this source. The skin should not be removed from such specimens except as necessary in the course of dissection. The hair will give little trouble, because dry.
The specimens should be kept in a tight box, that the fluid may not evaporate rapidly from the cloths used for wrapping.
The attacks of the mould present a difficulty not so easily overcome. As long as the specimens are in daily use for dissection, and exposed parts kept covered with cloths saturated with the glycerine and formalin mixture, little or no trouble is to be anticipated. But if the specimens are left untouched for some days, and particularly if exposed surfaces are not kept covered in the manner above recommended, mould is almost sure to attack them. Material neglected for a week may thus be ruined.
If mould is found at any time to be attacking the material, the attacked part should be cleaned and well wrapped in cloths saturated in the formalin-glycerine mixture. If such means are unavailing, the specimen should be immersed in a vessel of one per cent. formalin and preserved for the future in this. Recourse should be had at once also to this method of preservation if the specimen shows signs of decomposition by having a strong odor.
It seems probable that the attacks of the mould might be prevented by mixing some fungicide with the injecting fluid; experiments should be made in this direction.
There are many advantages in preserving the material if possible without immersing it. All parts retain their color and pliability much more completely, so that the different structures are much more easily distinguishable. The method above [described], by the use of formalin and glycerine, is to be recommended when the material is to be worked on every day or so and is not to be kept longer than a few weeks. It is usually not very satisfactory in warm weather, however. If some method can be devised of entirely preventing the attacks of the mould, this will be an excellent method of preserving anatomical material.
The same specimens used for the study of the muscles will serve also for the spinal cord and brain if prepared by one of the methods above described. (For the viscera, blood-vessels, and nerves, other specimens will have to be prepared; for these, directions are given later.)