FLEUR FULCHER: Fleur's internship diary week 2

Over, once again to the divine Ms F. She is spending the summer as an intern at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. This is her story.......

We have been continuing with the cleaning of shells and their boxes, which despite predictions to the contrary I still love. In fact I am starting to wonder why I never found snails interesting previously the most delicate object yet was some 100 year old freeze dried snail eggs.

This week we also learnt more about how the documentation works in a museum, something which my fellow intern grasped far more quickly than I. I did, however, get to help with the wrapping of a donated Rhino horn for freezing. Objects such as that horn have to be frozen when aquired to kill any pests that may be living within.

When working on the shells we were on the lookout for Byne's disease, which oddly is not a disease at all but rather efflorecense caused by a reaction with acid vapours in the air. the beautiful wooden cabinets that such collections are often kept in are one cause of these vapours.

Working at a rate of about 200-300 shells a day there are still many days of shells left, but there are other projects to be working on, these might include historic man-traps, helping check the stores for signs of pests and helping to freeze objects that need it.

We've met more of the other museum staff, and I'm starting to understand more about how a museum works. Catherine went to South Molton museum to help with putting up an exhibition, and next time I shall be helping in a different museum.

A similarity I have noticed between members of the CFZ and the people I work with is a noted fondness for cakes of various types.

Fleur's bosses at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum have been kind enough to allow her to write this blog, even though it is not usually their policy to allow such things. We would like to thank them for this, and to point out that all pictures of museum specimens are copyright to the RAMM