Letters, Announcements, ^c. 239 



extract the whole of the entrails, liver, heart, and so forth; 

 wipe the cavity of the body out carefully with a little cotton- 

 wool, and then fill it with clean cotton-wool dipped in a satu- 

 rated solution of carbolic-acid crystals, and with a stitch or two 

 close the opening. Open the mouth, cut through the palate 

 into the brain-pan and eye-sockets so as to ensure the acid 

 penetrating to the brain and eyes, and stuff the mouth and 

 throat with cotton-wool soaked, as before, in the solution ; tie 

 the mouth up, and place the specimen in a paper cone to dry, as 

 usual. In a short time the flesh dries hard and stiff, and never, 

 from first to last, has any unpleasant smell. How long birds 

 thus preserved will last I do not know ; but I have now about 

 fifty by me, one of which was prepared at Simla in October last. 

 By this plan the whole skeleton is retained, and by steeping it 

 continually in warm water the body becomes available for dis- 

 section. A novice may in this way easily preserve from fifty to 

 sixty beautiful birds in a single day. The eyes sink, it is true, 

 and somewhat spoil the appearance of the head ; but, with this 

 exception, the specimens thus prepared are superior, so far as 

 looks go, to those preserved by skinning, while neither Der- 

 mestee nor Tinea will go near them. 



I remain, &c., 



Allan Hume. 



*** We have not before heard of carbolic acid being used to 

 prepare birds ; but entomologists have been alive to its merits in 

 the preservation of Coleoptera. Mr. John Hancock has for 

 many years been in the habit of using pyroligneous acid, much 

 in the same way as Mr. Hume now uses carbolic acid ; but with 

 the former it is not found necessary (in temperate climates at 

 least) to extract the entrails, or to perforate the brain through 

 the palate, which last, since Prof. Huxley's researches, certainly 

 should be left uninjured. Perhaps some of our correspondents 

 in hot climates will make experiment of the properties of both 

 acids, and report to us the result. — Ed. 



Copenhagen, 25 February, 1869. 

 Sir,— From a passage in 'The H^is ' for 1868 (p. 484) I 



