Pharmaceutical bottles

I recently found some bottles in our drugstore display containing
Tr. Arnica. Tr.Nuc.Vom.  Tr. Iodi and Pv. Jalapa. All look as though
the contents inside have created such a pressure that the glass
bottles have cracked, some quite extensively. I am unable to remove
the lids from two of the bottles. I tried pulling out the Tr. Iodi
lid and it broke in my hand. Does anyone have any experience with
this? Should I try to remove the two lids to allow further
off-gassing to occur? What should I use to remove the lids? Water?
Soap? Will the contents still be dangerous? All bottles are 70 years
old at least, some are older. Should I fill the cracks with some
type of resin or adhesive so that the contents don't leak out? Or
will this simply cause the bottles to crack again? Thank you,

Heather Place
Assistant Conservator
Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature
190 Rupert Ave
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada R3B 0N2
204-988-0694
Fax: 204-942-3679


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:14
                  Distributed: Friday, August 18, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-14-14-016
                                  ***