62 Mr. E. Lovett. 
balsam should be placed on the slide, which should be gently 
heated. Plunging the object into the balsam, and seeing that 
the balsam closed well over it without enclosing bubbles, the 
operator should gently warm a perfectly clean thin glass cover 
and place it on the balsam, simply allowing it to settle down of 
its own weight, whereupon the balsam would flow to the edge 
of the cover, and the slide would not require cleaning of super- 
fluous balsam. The slide could then be finished off with a 
cement composed of flake white and gumdamar, rendered fluid 
with chloroform. Beside those objects which required prepa- 
ration for balsam, there were many others which might be so 
mounted without any preparation—such as plant hairs, scales, 
insect hairs, spores, micro’ fungi, &c. Insects should be 
mounted without any pressure whatever being brought to bear 
upon them, and there should be only such removal of colour as 
was absolutely necessary to procure the requisite clearness of 
definition of structure. With regard to botanical specimens 
soaking was very necessary. 
Describing the method of mounting which was of great 
value for such objects as did not do well in balsam, and 
could not be mounted dry, Mr. Lovett went on to refer 
to such things as internal parts of insects — crustacea, 
mollusca, &c.—and the ova of these animals, besides many 
other specimens which required a good preservative fluid 
medium hermetically sealed in a more or less deep cell. The 
best fluid for this kind of work was one composed of three parts 
of absolute alcohol, two parts of glycerine, and one part of 
distilled water, and the object required only a short period of 
soaking. The specimens could be placed in this fluid without 
previous preparation, and could remain there until it became 
convenient to mount them. Tubes containing this ftuid could 
be carried about in the pocket, and when a specimen was 
found, it requiring no preparation, could be dropped into the 
fluid forthwith, the objects being ready for mounting as soon as 
the fluid had thoroughly permeated the specimen. 
With respect to the modus operandi of mounting, Mr. Lovett 
described it as tollows :—If it were desired to use a deep cell, the 
operator should cement a glass ring or square on to the centre of 
the glass slip with stiff marine glue, and lay it aside for a few 
days to thoroughly harden; then place a little gold size round the 
top of the cell near the outer edge, and hold it over the lamp to 
thoroughly harden it, so that it could not run into the cell; 
then fill the cell perfectly full, till there was a convexity, with 
fluid, and place the object on it, taking care that no air or 
foreign matter was enclosed with it; then take a cover glass 
of the same size as the exterior size of the cell, and after 
cleaning it, breathe on the side which would come downwards, 
