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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



presiding genius of Mr. J. T. Carrington, the able 

 editor of the "Entomologist" was submitted to 

 public inspection, and deservedly received the highest 

 praises. 



A few years later on, 1SS1, and taking a hint 

 from the above, the idea saw the light at the 

 Zoological Gardens. The attempt here, in the 

 absence of the "modus operandi " was but a slight 

 improvement upon the exhibit at the Aquarium, and 

 although exciting great public interest, and evoking 

 highly laudatory articles in the journals of the day as 

 the beginning of something better, it appears to have 

 remained unprogressive beyond the initial position. 

 The important fact of two highly scientific bodies 

 having shown their willingness to act upon the 

 writer's original suggestion, will, it is hoped, exempt 

 him from any egotism in claiming his priority in an 

 attempt to open wide a new page in the book of 

 Nature, and to exhibit, in a living state, some of her 

 smaller, but no less wondrous marvels, designed and 

 painted by the greatest of Master's hands, and to 

 supplement zoological collections, aquaria, and 

 aviaries, by bringing under popular inspection an 

 " Insectorium," as illustrating a fourth branch of 

 creative power, unseen hitherto, except by those 

 who have explored her more distant and forest- 

 hidden recesses. 



We are met at the outset with a hard word — im- 

 possibility ; if a thing which never has been done 

 cannot be done, then we accept its full import, and, 

 coming from the lips of Science, are almost compelled 

 to retire abashed from the unequal contest ; but 

 believing that there is a time for everything, even 

 the development of an Insectorium, we now venture, 

 in all due humility, to submit the following outline 

 sketch as an introduction to the subject, and trust it 

 may prepare the way for others, better able, to take 

 up the matter and to carry it ultimately to a more 

 successful issue. 



The accompanying illustration represents three of 

 a series of ornamental glass (or fine wire-work) 

 houses, to be kept at a moist and tropical tempera- 

 ture, and varying in size according to requirement, 

 proposed to be constructed inside and against the 

 walls of a long room, and containing accommodation 

 for butterflies, beetles, fireflies, phasma, cicada, and 

 mantis insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, &c, 

 respectively. 



For butterflies, the houses should be attractively 

 fitted up with shrubs, climbers and continuous bloom- 

 ing and sweet-scented plants. Also supplied with jars 

 of cut flowers to be daily renewed, and with saucers 

 filled with boiled " foots " sugar and treacle diluted 

 with water to a thinner consistency, and protected by 

 fine wire-work for the insects to settle upon and to 

 probe between, thus furnishing veritable dainty dishes 

 fit to set before such fairy or airy queens. The addi- 

 tion of cork or rockwork would add a picturesque 

 and more complete finish to the building. 



For such insects as may exist upon the juices of 

 living plants, the houses should be supplied with 

 the particular plants known to be suitable to meet 

 the requirements of the individual species, such, for 

 instance, as cotton, jasmine, wild thistle, sour sop, 

 banana, pine-apple, cashew, lime, guava, passion 

 flower, gamboge, cocoa, vanilla, citron, rose, castor 

 oil, fig, vine, orange, medlar, pawpaw, &c. 



Many of the above are readily procurable over 

 here, and young plants of the others could be 

 obtained without any very special difficulty. 



For caterpillars and where the leaves of plants 

 only are needed, a mode for such leaves being sent 

 over from abroad in a perfectly fresh and healthy 

 condition, will be described further on. 



Logs of decayed wood would suffice for many of 

 the beetle tribe. 



The houses for scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, 

 &c, might be decorated with shrubs, and the ground 

 left rough with stones, &c. A supply of insects 

 would meet their carnivorous requirements. Iron 

 should be used in preference to wood in the con- 

 struction of the buildings to prevent boring through, 

 and where the larvae have a tendency to burrow 

 under ground, concrete or stones should be laid at 

 a sufficient depth under the soil to prevent escape. 



Jets of warm steam passing into the buildings 

 would furnish a humid atmosphere where required. 

 We should thus have a number of miniature Elysiums 

 wherein insect life could disport itself in beauty and 

 joyousness, instead of being battered to pieces inside 

 small glass shades ; the former real " Insectoria," the 

 latter mere delusions and shams. 



The first attempts to introduce tropical insects 

 should be confined to their conveyance in the egg, 

 chrysalis, or grub condition, their development into 

 more perfect forms being effected over here, by the 

 aid of hot-house temperature. 



Eggs and chrysalides sent from long distances 

 should be retarded from transformation en route, by 

 being enclosed in tin cases or air-tight tubes kept at 

 a sufficiently cool temperature by outer cases, charged 

 with a refrigerating chemical mixture. 



One of the most remarkable provisions of creative 

 supervision is to be found in the indwelling power 

 decreed upon insect eggs to resist the most extreme 

 influences of heat and cold, thus providing a 

 wonderful means of preserving the species under this 

 almost invisible and fragile form, and under circum- 

 stances which would utterly destroy the insects 

 themselves if subjected to such severe extremes. 



Mr. A. Wailly has given his experience in the 

 "Journal of the Society of Arts," with regard to the 

 conveyance of foreign silkworms' eggs, as follows : 



"The eggs should be placed in a muslin bag con- 

 taining the leaves of the food plant, and then the bag 

 should be inserted in a tin box, and the box be 

 hermetically closed. The leaves will thus keep and 

 arrive in as fresh a state as if they had just been 



