Note 260 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
It may be well to caution the collector against employing sulphuric acid (commonly called oil of vitriol) for this purpose, for a white insoluble deposit (sulphate of lime) will thus be formed on the specimen, and its appearance irremediably injured. Many of the fossil corals obtained from the chalk of Dover Cliffs, are so saturated with muriate of soda, from long exposure to the spray of the sea, as to be liable to decomposition in the course of a few weeks, and are therefore not worth purchasing of the dealers.