Letter from Spencer Baird to Winfrid Stearns

Naturalist and Smithsonian administrator Spencer Fullerton Baird writes to ornithologist Winfrid A. Stearns about the use of alcohol in preserving museum specimens. Unfortunately, the Smithsonian's alcohol stock has run out, and a new shipment will not arrive in time for Stearns's purposes. Baird recommends an alternative preservation technique involving arsenic.