I saw your question (statement) to Sri Jampala about formaldehyde
not as a suitable medium for exhibiting things (pershables).
The answer is yes!
Formaldehyde is the most suitable medium to exhibit things (dead and
perishable substances, especially biological samples). If you visit any
biological (zoological and botanical) or medical museums (either in
colleges or institutes or public scientific organizations), you can see
the displys of those samples nicely immersed in Formaldehyde in pretty and
clean glass jars, kept behind clean glass doors.
Also, a proportion of alcohol (ethyl alcohol) is added to the formaldehyde
solution. The proportion of that preservative solution mixture is
2 volumes of Formaldehyde and 1 volume of ethyl alcohol.
Also, the aqueous solution of Formaldehyde (37-50%) is commercially called
"FORMALIN". Actually, the original Formaldehyde is a gas and upon
dissolving it in water will become a preservative solution.
Formaldehyde solution is as well a preservative as a FIXATIVE i.e. a
killer. What Jampala and Ari are intending the usage of formaldehyde is
the preservative property only not a fixation property.
One literary meaning of FORMAL is - designating of the level of language
useage characterized by expanded vocabulary, complete syntactic
constructructions, complex sentences, etc. distinguished from COLLOQUIAL or
INFORMAL.
The meaning of Aldehyde is = al - means alcohol; dehyd - means rogenation
i.e. without hydrogen.
Now, by revisiting both the above meanings of the compound, Formaldehyde,
the usage of the word by Ari and Jampala, with reference to the context
is appropriate.
--pAlana
PS: Removing the hydrogen from alcohol to prepare formaldehyde reduces
the potency of the alcoholic nature of the alcohol and totally convets
it into a different compound. Now look for the literary meaning of
FORMAL in the word FORMALDEHYDE without the proton.
regards
---pAlana