DEPARTMENT OF INSECTS. 185 



ciully of those orders coraprisiag smaller insects like Goleoptera, IJy- 

 menoptera, etc. These foUling boxes have tlie great advantage of being 

 readily re-arranged upon shelves and of being very easily used in 

 study. 



The folding boxes finally adopted are of white pine, shellacked, and 

 varnished, the bottom and top double, and cross-grained to prevent 

 warping. They are 13 by 8;^ inches outside measurement, the top and 

 bottom projecting slightly at the front and sides. The inside measure- 

 ment is lljl by 7. The sides, back, and front are five-sixteenths of an 

 inch thick, with a machine joint, which is neat and very secure. The 

 boxes are 2^ inches in outside depth, unequally divided, the lower por- 

 tion ii inches outside depth, lined inside with a thin whitewood lining, 

 I)rojecting three-fourths of an inch above the rim of the outside box. 

 Over this projecting lining the cover part of the box closes and makes 

 thus a <lust and museum pest- tight box. The bottom is cork-lined and 

 covered with a fine white glazed i)aper. 



All the boxes are furnished with neat brass label holders into which 

 a card containing a list of the contents can be readily placed and re- 

 moved at pleasure. The two parts of the box are hinged together and 

 held closed by two small brass hooks closing over a neat brass screw. 

 Similar boxes have been used by a number of collectors and given some 

 satisfaction. The good features of all are, we believe, united in this 

 box, the workmanship of which also leaves little to be desired. 



The biological material is, very much of it, alcoholic, for though many 

 of the immature states of insects may be preserved by dry processes 

 yet the bulk must needs be kept in alcohol. Where the material is in 

 duplicate it is well, when it is not too heavy or cumbersome, to place 

 such biological material with the systematic collection, yet experience 

 has taught me that it is wiser to make a separate biological collection, 

 and this it is proposed to do. This collection will in fact be a feature 

 of the Museum collection in the future. Hence it was very desirable to 

 adopt some method of securing the vials in such a manner that they can 

 be easily moved from one place to another, and fastened in the ordinary 

 boxes and drawers employed for pinned insects. The vials in use to 

 preserve such specimens as must be left in alcohol or other liquids are 

 straight glass tubes of varying diameters and lengths with round bot- 

 tom and smooth, even mouth. The stopi)les in use are of rubber, which, 

 when tightly ])ut into the vial, the air being nearly all expelled, keep 

 the contents of the vial intact and safe for years. 



Various forms of bottles sire used in museums for the preservation of 

 minute alcoholic material. I have tried the flattened and the square and 

 have studied various other forms of these vials ; but I am satisfied that 

 those just described, which are in use by Dr. Ilagen in the Cambridge 

 Museum, are, all things considered, the most convenient and economi- 

 cal. A more difficult problem to solve was a convenient aiwl satisfac- 



