"The first case – marked “1925-1928” – at first would not be
opened with the appropriate key. I tried graphite powder on the padlock and,
finally, a single-serve tub of salad dressing from the cafeteria, before
leaving work to find a hardware store and buy a pair of bolt-cutters: even
then, the hinges were so rusted that the lid had to be levered up. I thought at
first that Carl had used some variety of arcane packing material to contain the
specimens until I realised that the whole case was full of an aggressive type
of mould, like dark blue candy-floss, and I abandoned the lab in order to
search for some kind of breathing apparatus that could deal with noxious
spores.
There were 23 heads in that trunk and
they all had to be shorn of their mould and treated with a heavy-duty
fungicide; even after that, I kept them sitting, well-ventilated under UV
lights, for a month, on the off-chance that they might sprout forth once more.
Did I worry that such ferocious pesticides might affect the results? I ask you:
did I care? I still have nightmares about contracting dark-blue asbestosis..."
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