122 THE RETROSPECT. 



adopt myself once in two thousand times — the rounded wood system makes 

 it unnecessary — but still, if it be used, the hole made by such a pin being 

 invisible unless by means of a microscope, 



("Cur in amicorum vitiis tarn cenris acutum, 

 At tibi contra, 

 Evenit inquirant vitia ut tua rursus et illi." 



I should be inclined to give it the preference over the mode he suggests, 

 which must at least, I should think, be liable to rub the wings, and so 

 injure them, far more than the minute orifice I have spoken of. 



6th. — Mr. Greene "emphatically denies" that the effect of the setting by 

 means of the turned woods is better than his mode, or the process so quickly 

 performed. I emphatically re-assert both assertions; and as to the danger 

 of the threads rubbing the wings of some of the more delicate species, I 

 should have supposed that "even a child" entomological would have known 

 that the danger, which otherwise indeed would exist, is altogether and 

 completely prevented by the well-known method ("omnibus notum tonsoribus 

 atque poetis") of placing a piece of silver paper between the thread and 

 the wings. (See the "Aphorismata" in my "History of British Butterflies.") 



With regard to the quickness of the mode, I throw down the glove — 

 not that I think that excellence is to be sacrificed to speed. 



"Ecce, 

 Crispinus minimo me provocat: accipe si vis, 

 Accipiam tabulas; detur nobis locus, hora, 

 Custodes; videamus uter plus settere possit." 



I will set a hundred specimens of Noduce by my mode, and let Mr. Greene 

 the same number by his. Let the setting of each be tested by an 

 umpire, and he shall have my hundred specimens if they are not equally 

 well set as his, and in less time. 



I have only to add that I am inclined to think that few collections in 

 England exceed mine in point of setting. I am in fact over-fastidious, and 

 if he wishes, let any fair umpire be named by Mr. Greene, to compare his 

 collection with mine, specimen with specimen, and I will give him every 

 specimen of my own setting in my cabinet that is not so well set as his 

 corresponding one, if he will give me each one of his that is not better set 

 than mine. I will include my foreign collection in the challenge, as I relax 

 and re-set all the specimens, to be compared with any such of his if he 

 collects them. 



Mr. Greene does not say how much slant the boards ought to have, as 

 the best form, which would have been as well, instead of leaving it "ad 

 libitum," inasmuch as specimens set by one person so often come into 



