Yes, laundry bleach is sodium hypochlorite, which is utterly unrelated
to hydrochloric ("muriatic") acid, which is hydrogen chloride.

Don't use it... while it will certainly remove the slime, but it will
also ruin the dress if it has any cotton or silk content, and possibly
bleach the dyes even if it's all-synthetic.

Don't use acid either!

Hydrogen peroxide will probably do more damage than bleach (and will
leach colors from shells and weaken protein-rich nacreous shells; I
know, I've tried!).

Washing soda (sodium bicarbonate) might do the job; or try wetting the
slime with saliva and leaving it for a while. Whatever, it should come
out without any radical methods. Perhaps with the aid of a toothbrush
to help break it up. It certainly won't hurt, is cheap and can be used
to clean dirty shells or break down soft fossil matrix.

--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Mollusc, Toyota & VW van nut
Temporarily in Calgary, AB, Canada
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