2C,G 



PSYCHE. 



[January — March iSSs. 



Preservation of insects. — To remove 

 the verdigris which forms upon the pins 

 the pinned insects should be immersed in 

 benzine and left there for a time; several 

 hours is generally long enough. The ad- 

 ministration of this bath cannot be too 

 highly recommended for beetlcswhich have 

 been rendered unrecognizable b_v grease, 

 especially when dust has been mixed with 

 the grease. This immersion, of variable 

 duration according to circumstances, will 

 restore to these insects, however bad they 

 have become, all their brilliancy and all 

 their first freshness, and the efflorescences 

 of cupric oxide will not reappear. This 

 preventative and curative method is also 

 readily applicable to beetles glued upon 

 paper which have become greasy: plunge 

 them into benzine in the same way, and as 

 gum is insoluble in the liquid, they remain 

 fastened to their supports. Pruinose beetles, 

 which are few in number, are the only ones 

 that the benzine bath can alter; the others 

 which are glabrous, pubescent, or scaly, can 

 only gain by the process, and they will 

 always make a good show in the collection 

 . . . — A. Dubois in Feitille lies jcunvs nat- 

 uralist cs, March 1SS5, p. 71. 



Necrology. Since our last issue an- 

 nouncements of the deaths of the following en. 

 tomologists have come to our notice : Constant 

 Bar, entomologist at Cayenne, French Guia- 

 na, died there in 1SS4. Professor Lauritz Es- 

 mark, director of the zoological museum of the 

 university of Christiania, died there in Dec. 

 1SS4. George Mawson, an English lepido- 

 pterist, died 10 Nov. 1S84. L. Rudolf 

 Meyer-Diir, who has published articles upon 

 entomology since 1S41, died 2 March 18S5, 

 at Zurich, Switzerland, aged 73. Louis Au- 

 guste Remade Mors, a Parisian entomo- 

 logist and civil engineer, died at Paris, 7 

 Dec. 1SS4, at the age of 5S years. Major 

 Frederic J. Sidney Parry, a London coleo- 

 pterist, died i Feb. 1885, at The Warren, 

 Bushey Heath, aged 74. Titian Ramsay 

 Peale, lepidoptcrist, born Oct. 1799, died 

 13 March iSSs- in Philadelphia, Pa. Ed- 



ward Caldwell Rye, a well-known English 

 coleopterist, and editor of the Zoological 

 record, born in London 10 April 1832, died 

 of the small-pox, in the same city, 7 Feb. 18S5. 

 Sidney Smith, entomologist and concholo- 

 gist, died at Walmer, England, 28 Dec. 1S84, 

 aged nearly 80 years. Friedrich Stein, pro- 

 fessor in the university of Prague, who was 

 born in 181S in Niemegk, Prussia, died 9 

 Jan. 1885 in Prague; Dr. Stein was a well- 

 known writer upon infusoria, and in earlier 

 life the author of a number of entomological 

 papers, among which the most prominent 

 was one upon the sexual organs and the 

 structure of the abdomen of female beetles, 

 with nine large plates, published in 1S47. 

 The January (1SS5; numero of Rovartani 

 lafuk gives a biographical notice, list of 

 publications, and portrait of Dr. O. Tomos- 

 vdry, whose death we have already noted; 

 he was born 12 Oct. 1S52, at Magyar6, Hun- 

 gary, and died 14 August 18S4, at D^va, 

 Hungary. G: D. 



Upon a peculiar oriental locality 

 FOR HONEY.* — Xenophon, in his descrip- 

 tion of the " Retreat of the ten thousand," 

 says that his soldiers drank barley wine, oinon 

 kritys, as it had been introduced into Egypt 

 by Osyris 4000 years previously, according to 

 the Egyptian tradition, to take the place of 

 other spirituous liquors. Sophocles and other 

 writers mention this barley wine also. Xeno- 

 phon says likewise that his soldiers were in 

 the habit of getting drunk by the use of a 

 certain kind of honey, and were poisoned by 

 it. It seems that the bees suck the nectar 

 from the flowers of poisonous plants which 

 are found in that region. Such an intoxicat- 

 ing, soporific honey is still found there under 

 the name of Meli mcnomenon . I have suc- 

 ceeded by many tedious investigations in es- 

 tablishing the following. I obtained the in- 

 formation princiiially through a former pupil 

 of mine who is now settled in Kerchasund In 

 Persia as a physician and apothecary. 



* Transt.itcd from Prof. Dr. Xavcr Landcrer's "Mit- 

 thfihingen aus dcm orient" (Dcutsch-amcr. ajiothckcr. 

 ztitiinB, 15 Dec 1SS2, jahrg, 3. p. 582). 



