IV MONTHLY PROCEEDINGS 



men at the end of a lever and the slight jarring of the boxes often 

 repeated tends to loosen the specimen or cause it to turn. It seems 

 to me that the remedy for falling or turning specimens is easy to be 

 applied. Discard all material for lining hut cork and that of at least 

 one-fourth of an inch (6 — 7 mm.) in thickness, and (at least the bot- 

 tom of) the box of such wood that the pin may partly enter it vrithout 

 bending the point, and in the second place 7t.se a slwrter pin. 



Should the pin remain firm in the cork the insect will sometimes 

 turn on the pin as its axis. This is obviated by nearly all American 

 entomologists by using a little shellac dissolved in alcohol at the point 

 where the pin passes through the body beneath. I have never known 

 specimens to turn if so treated. Should the specimen be large and 

 bulky as in Dijnns.tes or Strategus, it has been my custom to flatten 

 the pin slightly by a few light blows of a hammer before inserting it, 

 using the shellac also. 



The presence of infection is readily detected in a vertical box as the 

 dust always falls on the head of the specimen below the infected one. 



It seems, therefore, that the troubles about which Mr. de Borre writes, 

 are for the most part attributable to the boxes and pins rather than to 

 the particular position in which the boxes are placed in the cabinet. 



To my mind the objections to a horizontal arrangement of boxes 

 are : the boxes must be placed one on the other on a shelf or else 

 many shelves must be made to accommodate them. In the former 

 case it must be evident that in handling one box in a pile it is neces- 

 sary to disturb probably several others at a certain amount of personal 

 inconvenience, and causing an additional amount of wear on the 

 boxes and injury to specimens without any adequate compensation. 

 Should we increase the number of shelves to avoid piling the boxes 

 we add greatly to the amount of space occupied as well as to the 

 expense for cabinet work. 



After considerable experiment and observation I have adopted a 

 box made of well-seasoned pine, nine by fourteen inches and two inches 

 deep, all outside measure. The lid is secured at the back by two 

 hinges and when closed fastened by a small brass hook at each end. 

 The lid and bottom when the box is closed seem equal, and the depth 

 is given to the bottom by the inner frame on which the lid tightly 

 fits at all points. The lining of the bottom is cork not less than a 

 fourth of an inch covered with thin glazed paper. The outside of 

 the box may be entirely plain or painted, or stained to suit the tastes 

 of the owner. These boxes are placed on shelves a little more than 



