ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &LC 541 
of wine, and shall here repeat my recommendation ; for 
after several years trial, I am of -Bohm's opinion, who 
had tried it nine years % that it is superior to any other 
method ; particularly, because it not only effectually kills 
the insects, and they may be put together into it while 
you are collecting, if you have no reason for keeping 
them separate, of all sorts and sizes, in a wide-mouthed 
phial, without danger of their devouring each other: 
but when you come home wearied with a long day's 
hunt, you may let your insects remain in it without in- 
jury till the next morning. In collecting beetles abroad, 
when there is a want of store-boxes the readiest way is 
to put them into a wide-mouthed bottle or jar filled with 
any spirit, and send them home in it : some few may 
lose their colours, or become greasy ; but in general they 
will receive little injury. This method saves room, and 
avoids the risk of breakage. The derangement which 
some hairy species sustain from this method may be rea- 
dily repaired by brushing them with a dry camel's-hair 
pencil. 
When you wish to take the insects you have immersed 
in spirits out of the phial, you must strain its contents 
through a piece of muslin, return the spirit into it for 
future use, and spread the insects separately upon blot- 
tincr-paper, to absorb the moisture remaining about them. 
With regard to such as you have in boxes or phials with- 
out spirit, these must be immersed in a basin of boiling 
water. First empty into it the contents of your boxes, 
a Illig. Mag. iii. 222. Mr. Stephens however, whose experience 
is great in the best modes of collecting, is of opinion that insects that 
have been immersed in spirits of wine are apt to become mouldy. 
We have not ourselves observed this. 
