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13

duly printed.

The old general collection has passed through many vicissitudes. The worst event in its history was its being mounted on glass plates, or tablets, by the late Dr. Philip Carpenter with a preparation of shellac. As there is no known cement which will remain hard and unite permanently two surfaces as polished as glass and shell, in a climate subject to such extremes of temperature as ours; in the course of time all of these specimens had to be removed from the glass tablets, each and every shell defaced by a dark colored patch of shellac. This was so serious an injury that when the general collection was taken up for revision it was attempted, fortunately with success, to remove the shellac by the use of alcohol. This work was begun by Mr. Jouy and

Transcription Notes:
The days before air conditioning and modern glues! vicissitudes again! :)