245 



mounted by Mr. S. Green, of Colombo, Ceylon, and presented to the Club by 

 Mr. Curties. 



The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Carties and Mr. lugpen, 

 expressed his sense of the value of the collection, and thought that if anything 

 the smaller were more beautiful than the larger ones. Many were of minute 

 diptera, which had long antennse, and he thought that if they were disturbed 

 they would almost certainly be displaced or destroyed. 



Votes of thanks to Mr. Curties and Mr. Ingpen were carried unanimously. 



Mr. Curties said that the object which he and his friend Mr. Green had in 

 view was to present the collection to some public body by whom the question as 

 to the best means of preserving and transporting such objects could be worked 

 out. As to the specimens which had been sent over in spirit it had been found 

 that the results were not entirely satisfactory, and they had, therefore, endea- 

 voured to ascertain some better method of sending tliem. On receiving these 

 parcels he thought that objects sent in this manner might be utilised by reason 

 of their perfect preservation in a natural form. Many friends went abroad, 

 and came back bringing nothing with them from inability to preserve specimens, 

 and any improved methods of doing so must be of value in scientific research. 



Mr. Loy stated that having looked over the collection he could speak favour- 

 ably of the results attained. He had paid more attention to the smaller insects 

 than to the larger ones, and many of them appeared to have been simply 

 dropped into the balsam without preparation. Instead of finding them at all 

 cloudy, they were quite clear, and there were very few air-bubbles. The muscles 

 of the thorax and legs were shown beautifully, and in some of them the small 

 intestines and hepatic vessels could be clearly traced. He thought that if they 

 could succeed in doing in England what had been done in the tropics, it would 

 be worth much trouble, A few of the parasites had been soaked in potash, but 

 the results were tiot so satisfactory. He was surprised to find that insects 

 merely pressed between the leaves of a book should be so free from air-bubbles. 

 The question was whether it was possible to do the same here as in the tropics ; 

 or whether the sun there did not have the power of driving out the moisture 

 much more completely than was possible with artificial heat in our own climate. 

 He had himself a slide mounted — a section — from which it seemed impossible 

 to drive the moisture, although it had been placed for several months on the 

 top of a cistern filled with hot water. As regarded the various methods of 

 sending insects from foreign parts, a friend of his in Belgium received some 

 which came perfectly safe in castor oil ; he expected to be able to get it all out, 

 and to mount the insects perfectly, 



Mr. B. T, Lowne thought they could hardly expect many persons to take so 

 much trouble in this matter as Mr. Green had done. There was, however, a very 

 easy way of transmitting small insects, and that was by merely placing them 

 upon a piece of gummed paper, and laying it out to dry. If they were not sub- 

 jected to pressure they would come quite safely, and could be got ofi" for use by 

 re-dissolving the gum. The great difficulty, he thought, had been that of get- 

 ting insects sufficiently unchanged for examination of their internal organs, 

 which usually became impregnated with fatty matter to such an extent as to 

 make them worthless for this purpose. Whether they were put up in oil or in 

 glycerine this fatty matter was found to change the whole so entirely that after 

 a few years they became totally useless, and it was possible only now and then 

 to get a glimpse of the internal organs in consequence. 



Mr, Ingpen remarked that Mr. Green stated in one of his letters that he could 



