253 



The President reminded the members that the excursions of the Club had 

 commenced for the season, and lists of objects of interest found in the 

 Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, and also at Caen Wood, were read. 



Mr. Curties read a letter from Mr. S. Green, of Ceylon, descriptive of some 

 specimens of insects forwarded therewith, and also a short paper '' On an 

 Easy Method of Mounting Insects." 



Mr. A. D. Michael thought they must not quite take it as correct that a 

 few hours' exposure to the cyanide bottle would be sufficient to destroy the 

 tissues of these insects. The cyanide bottle was so well known to col- 

 lectors that few were without one ; its great nse in addition to killing the 

 creatures being that they could be set without difficulty two or three days 

 after they were first killed as rigor mortis did not set in whilst they were 

 kept in the bottle. Of course if they were left too long they would de- 

 compose, and it was quite possible that in Ceylon decomposition might set 

 in very rapidly. In England, however, they would certainly take no harm 

 during the summertime if kept for two or three days. The plan of setting 

 insects in balsam, from which they had afterwards to be detached, would 

 perhaps do for large specimens, but he was afraid that small ones would 

 not bear the transfer, and thought it would be much better to arrange them 

 with a hair in a medium that would not stick to them, and then to apply 

 them to a film of balsam on the slide on which they were to be mounted. 



Mr. Ingpen said that without suggesting that this process would be applic- 

 able to insects of all sizes, he could not help thinking that the process 

 described by Mr. Green might be of very great use, especially to those who 

 were collecting insects abroad, and who wanted to send specimens home 

 without getting them injured. If the members would look at those sent 

 by Mr. Green and contrast them with some which were occasionally re- 

 ceived from other quarters, the contrast would undoubtedly be in favour of 

 the former ; so that if not universally applicable the process would at least 

 be of great use in many cases. With reference to the naming he could only 

 say that they had already in the cabinet about 150 specimens prepared by 

 Mr. Green, of which a very few only were named, and if they could get 

 them named approximately, say the genera only, it would be of some use 

 in enabling them to be classified. 



The President did not see any practical difficulty whatever in the matter 

 of naming the specimens, or any number of specimens. If anyone would 

 separate them a little into groups — say 50 ants in one and 50 diptera in 

 another — he believed he could easily get anyone at the British Museum to 

 name them, especially if there were any duplicates amongst them which 

 might be placed at the disposal of the Museum. They would, he believed, 

 do this con amore. 



Mr. Michael said he ought not to have omitted to say that he regarded 

 Mr. Green's mounts as the most instructive things of the kind which had 

 ever been seen in this country. Dr. Cooke no doubt spoke from experience, 

 but so far as he himself was concerned he could only say that he had found 

 very great difficulty in getting things named in that manner — everybody 

 at the Museum had to give an account to Dr. Gunther of the way in which 



Journ. Q. M. C, Series II., No. 5. w 



