There is also a test kit for determining if a specimen has arsenic (the
Merck Quant test kit) that is a fairly good indicator of both presence
and concentration. It's very useful for chemistry-phobes. You will need
access to a fume hood.

Arsenic has been so commonly used in both study skins and taxidermy that
I suspect its presence by default if a biological-origin specimen has not
been fumigated and is *not* being devoured by insects. Age alone won't
tell you anything. Many preparators and taxidermists cherished their
arsenical soap recipes and used them well into the '50s and '60s in this
century.

If arsenic is present, we enclose the specimen and red-tag it. We do not
get rid of it; we just try to create barriers to direct handling and
contact as well as an immediate visual warning.

Mercury, DDT, lindane, and a host of other compounds have routinely been
used in the not-so-distant past as pesticides on museum objects, too.
These were very often not documented. The older the specimen, the more
likely it is that it was prepared at a time when aggressive chemical
strategies were used. This doesn't mean that you have to get rid of
everything: you do have to be wary of specimens which are older, which
have no written preparation or treatment history, and/or which are
showing signs of powdery or crystalline deposits on the surface (in
taxidermy mounts, check any bare skin areas and the surfaces of glass
eyes). Wear gloves and a respirator if you are working with known problem
specimens. And, VERY importantly, don't put older specimens into
education collections or discovery rooms without checking them for
contamination!

We use the storage volume published by SPNHC as a guide for constructing
enclosures for the storage of valuable but contaminated specimens.

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation


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|                                                                       |
|                 San Diego Natural History Museum                      |
|                          P. O. Box 1390                               |
|                San Diego, California   92112  USA                     |
|             phone (619) 232-3821; FAX (619) 232-0248                  |
|                     email [log in to unmask]                          |
|                                                                       |
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