I went through this with a medical chest for a chip's doctor. You may 
wish to consult with a medical or hazardous waste disposal company or 
even your local fire department (they may do it for you as a training 
exercise). Most important, is that you may have a bottle of Mercury or a 
Mercury-based medication in there. In today's world, if you break a 
Mercury thermometer may have to bring in the Haz Mat guys. Some 19th 
century treatments used acids as well so be careful from that 
perspective. Also be carefull not to mix the chemicals as you empty the 
bottles as some combinations can result in deadly reactions. You're 
probably much better off dealing with this now than having a safety 
problem in the future.

Best of luck,

On 5/12/2011 1:31 PM, Adam Johnson wrote:
> Hello All!
> I am volunteering at a local historical museum and am assisting with the implementation of an exhibit about early 19th century medicinal treatments. We have a large collection of apothecary bottles accessioned and would like to utilize them in the exhibit but many still retain their original liquids. As the museum staff does not want to keep the liquids in the bottles, I wanted to ask your opinion as to whether the liquids should be disposed of or not. If so, what would be the proper disposal methods? Additionally, are there materials which would be potentially hazardous that should not be emptied?
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).