Queries and Answers. 91 



the solution cannot possibly be applied, the specimens will be 

 apt to decay in time, even though he were to dry them by a 

 slow heat, and put them beyond the reach of damp. Do what 

 he could, the colours would all be spoiled and faded; and the 

 shrivelled and distorted insects (except those of the beetle 

 family) would be rendered hideous, even to a common 

 inspector. 



On using the Spirit of Turpentine. (Vol.V. p. 74-6.) — I take 

 this opportunity of informing the Rev. Mr. Bree, that I have 

 long and successfully made use of the spirit of turpentine. In 

 1808, having tried many useless experiments to expel living 

 insects from dead ones, and from other preparations in natural 

 history, on opening, one day, an old magazine (I forget now 

 of what denomination) in a planter's house in Essequibo, I 

 read the following remark : — " Spirit of turpentine is known 

 to be the most fatal poison to insects." Taking it for granted 

 that the spirit was fatal through an atmosphere; as I was sure 

 no insect would drink it voluntarily, and I did not see how it 

 could be forced down their throats, I put some spirit of tur- 

 pentine into a trunk of preserved skins of birds, and into 

 which the moth had found its way. The next morning, I 

 saw that the spirit of turpentine had killed all the moths. In 

 the course of time, the use of the corrosive sublimate in 

 alcohol succeeded to this, and rendered the spirit of turpen- 

 tine wholly unnecessary, wherever the sublimate could be 

 applied to every part of the preserved specimen. But as, on 

 some occasions, I only washed the inside of the skins, and, in 

 this case, the feathers themselves, not having received the 

 poison, were still liable to injury from insects, especially in 

 tropical climates, I always took the precaution to have spirit 

 of turpentine in the box. In order to make myself clearly 

 understood by the Rev. Mr. Bree, I will describe exactly 

 what I did. I bought common hair-trunks which are sent 

 out with goods from Europe to South America ; I strewed the 

 bottom of the trunks with cotton, upon which I placed the 

 preserved bird-skins, and the different insects which I had 

 collected. Both birds and insects were placed promiscuously 

 in the same trunk. I then saturated a piece of sponge with 

 spirit of turpentine, and hung it up in a corner of the trunk: 

 I renewed the spirit from time to time. From that period to 

 this, no living insect has been detected in the trunks. The 

 plumage of the birds is as vivid as it was at the time I shot 

 them ; and the moths and butterflies as splendid as when in 

 life : but most of the other insects, except some of the beetles, 

 have faded, through the cause which I have already stated to 

 M. P. Thus I am enabled to say, by actual experiment, that 



