152 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



to the antenn(B. I do not agree with Mr. Doubleday's 

 opinion about camphor causing grease in insects. To speak 

 more correctly, I should say that insects will grease, quite 

 irrespective of camphor, which very probably may cause 

 its more speedy appearance. Once more to quote Mr. 

 Newman ; to nothing is the aphorism — " Prevention," &c. — 

 more applicable than to grease. I am sorry Mr. Clark finds 

 my method of "prevention" so difficult. 1 am quite sure 

 that the difficulties may be overcome by anyone gifted with 

 an ordinary deftness of fingers. Let me urge him to try, and 

 try again. Begin on some of the common^ stout-bodied 

 moths, having first carefully studied the directions. The 

 method, doubtless, requires some little skill, and nuich 

 patience; but he will be amply rewarded by seeing his 

 insects, after the lapse of years, as fresh and neat as the day 

 they were set. Lastly, — I have used camphor for twenty-five 

 years, and find it quite guiltless of the many sins laid to its 

 charge. I have always thought it, and still think it, the best 

 preservative, Mr, Brown's objection — " As camphor must 

 evaporate, little particles must settle on the wings of the 

 specimens" — is new to me. Will not the particles themselves 

 evaporate? — \Rev.\ J. Greene; Clifton, Bristol. 



Relaxing Butterjlies. — In No. 156 of your valued 

 'Entomologist' (Entom. ix, 137) one of your correspondents 

 wishes to know a good method of relaxing butterflies. 

 Through the kindness of a Lepidopterist, Mr. Pickel, of 

 Landsberg, I am able to give you a description of an 

 apparatus for this purpose, communicated to me for my 

 'Entomological News.' The apparatus consists of an oval 

 zinc-box, seven inches long by four inches wide, and two 

 inches and a half deep, and is closed with a lid, which has an 

 edge of half an inch to draw over it ; in one of the sides of 

 the box there is a hole half an inch from the upper edge, 

 through which a zinc tube, quarter of an inch in breadth, is 

 passed slantingly from the inner to the outer side, and is 

 soldered in such a manner that the upper half of the tube 

 reaches about half an inch on the inside of the box, but does 

 not touch the lid, whilst the lower end terminates in a down- 

 ward direction, about an inch and a half on the outside. In 

 order to be able to place the pinned butterflies in the box 

 there are cork strips on the bottom, which are held by thin 



