HABDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Ill 



would have rendered their ultimate preservation, 

 even in spirit, doubtful. 



Mode of Preservation op Spiders as 

 Cabinet Objects. 



Beautiful as are the colours and markings of 

 numbers of spiders, especially of those found in the 

 Tropics, yet it is not easy to make good-looking', 

 sightly cabinet objects of the Araneidea; and hence, 

 perhaps, more than from any other cause, this order 

 is, in comparison with the insect orders, almost 

 wholly neglected. It is possible, however, to dis- 

 play a large proportion of them very satisfactorily, 

 if care and dexterous manipulation are used. This 

 may be effected in more than one way. Many 

 species, whose abdominal integument is strong, and 

 pretty thickly clothed with hairs, or hairy pubes- 

 cence, may be pinned, dried, and set out like 

 insects. The abdomen may in some cases be simply 

 opened from beneath, and, after the contents are 

 extracted, stuffed with the finest cotton-wool ; 

 others may have the abdomen inflated with a blow- 

 pipe after its contents have been pressed out, and 

 then rapid drying prevents the obliteration of colour 

 and markings. But the best way to preserve both 

 colour, markings, and form, for scientific purposes 

 (and with some little extra care and trouble, for 

 cabinet objects also), is to immerse and keep them 

 in spirit of wine, or other strong spirit. The late 

 Mr. Richard Beck, of 31, Cornhill, London, com- 

 municated to me a method of preserving spiders in 

 spirit, by enclosing them within a flat under-glass 

 and a concave upper one, the two being cemented 

 together with gold size. The spider has to be set 

 out (in spirit) in a natural position, until the limbs 

 are tolerably rigid ; it is then laid on its back in a 

 thin concave glass, like a watch-glass; this glass 

 must be sufficiently large just to receive legs and 

 all without cramping them, and deep enough to 

 allow the spider just to be free, when a flat glass is 

 laid on the concave one. When the spider is laid 

 in such a glass on its back, the glass is as nearly as 

 practicable filled with spirit, and the flat glass, 

 which may be square, and a little larger all round 

 than the other, is sized down upon it. The spider 

 may then be seen in every direction, and it looks, in 

 fact, like a living creature, swimming inside. The 

 objections to this mode are its comparative costli- 

 ness, and the impossibility of avoiding the inevitably 

 enclosed air-bubble ; as regards the latter, however, 

 its presence might be rendered harmless by slightly 

 tilting the whole in the cabinet drawer. This fully 

 presents the spider to the eye, and frees it also from 

 contact with the air-bubble. Spiders, however, so 

 preserved, are sealed up from all higher scientific 

 purposes, such as the minute examination, under a 

 strong lens, of special portions of structure, and 

 their often necessary dissection. 

 Another mode, which I have practised success- 



fully myself, is far easier, less costly, and leaves the 

 spider free for any scientific investigation, while it 

 is yet made a pleasing object for ordinary observers. 

 My modus operandi is fust to catch the spider in a 

 pill-box ; it is then rendered motionless in a minute 

 or two by a few drops of chloroform allowed to run 

 into the box through the slightly-opened lid. When 

 perfectly insensible, it is set out and secured in a 

 natural position on a piece of wood or cork, by 

 means of pins placed wherever needed (except 

 through any part of the spider) ; the whole is then 

 placed in a shallow jar, deep enough, however, to 

 allow of sufficient spirit being poured in to cover 

 the spider completely. The jar is then covered 

 over, and allowed to remain undisturbed until the 

 limbs have become sufficiently rigid, by the action 

 of the spirit, to allow of the removal of the pins 

 without affecting the natural position of the spider. 

 This will take place in a week or ten days, more or 

 less, according to circumstances; the longer it is 

 allowed to remain, the less chance there is of the 

 legs curling up afterwards. When removed, after 

 the limbs have become rigid, the spider is put care- 

 fully, with the fore-legs downwards, into a test-tube 

 just large enough to admit it freely, without unduly 

 compressing the legs, the tube having previously 

 had a slip of white cardboard inserted into it 

 exactly the width of the diameter of the tube, and 

 about three-fourths of its length. This slip of card 

 is to form a background to the spider, and to keep 

 it steadily in one position. The tube is then filled 

 perfectly full of clean spirit of wine, a parchment 

 label containing the name of the spider is inserted 

 in an inverted position, so as to coil round next to 

 the glass, just above the spider, and the tube's 

 mouth is pretty firmly stopped with a pledget of 

 cotton-wool, after which it is placed, wool down- 

 wards, in a broad-mouthed, glass-stoppered bottle, 

 large enough to contain from five to fifteen or so 

 tubes when ranged within in a single row close to 

 the glass, and kept in place by the whole vacant 

 centre being firmly filled in with cotton-wool. The 

 glass-stoppered bottle thus packed is then filled up 

 nearly to the brim with spirit, making it impossible 

 i for that in the tubes to evaporate until the whole 

 of that in the bottle has evaporated, which, if the 

 glass stopper fits pretty well, will not be for several 

 years. In each tube two or more specimens — male 

 and female — may be placed one above the other, 

 according to the length of the tube, and some speci- 

 mens are placed so as to show the upper, and others 

 to show the under side. When bottles so filled are 

 arranged on narrow shelves not too far from the 

 eye, they have a very neat appearance, and allow the 

 spiders to be seen through the two glasses easily 

 and perfectly. Of course, the bottle must be taken 

 in hand to examine the contents at all closely, and 

 must be turned round to bring those spiders on the 

 opposite side into view. For critical purposes 



