If you use gmail, it provides some links and/or ads that purportedly
have something to do with the subject of the email.  One of the emails
related to this thread elicited links to an amazing tongue cleaner and
to some herbal concoction supposed to clean out your gut.  Muriatic
acid is not suitable for either of those purposes.

There are two situations I know of in which acid is desirable for work
on shells.  One is if you are dealing with fossils that have been
preserved with some other mineral such as opal, quartz, or calcium
phosphate.  In that case, a weak acid may clear away associated
carbonate (though it also clears away any remaining shell material).
A similar approach may work in dealing with molds-fossils that are
holes in the rock where shells dissolved away.  Filling the moldic
rock with some sort of resin or latex and then dissolving the rock may
be the best way to get material.

The other is if you actualy want to get rid of shell, e.g. in
anatomical studies.  Brief etching with acid is useful in studies of
shell microstructure.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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