ARACHNIDA, MYKIOPODA, AND PERIPATUS. 101 



impunity. Scorpions, Centipedes, and large Spiders, on the contrary, 

 are poisonous, and should be treated with caution. They can be 

 safely picked up with forceps. Scorpions, too, may without much 

 risk be seized by the end of the tail, the sting being firmly grasped 

 between the finger and thumb; and even the largest Spiders, being 

 unable to strike upwards, may be safely seized from above with a 

 handkerchief. 



Preservation and Packing, — Scorpions, Spiders, Centipedes, Milli- 

 pedes, and their allies should, if possible, be preserved in alcohol. If 

 alcohol be unobtainable, they may be packed in sawdust saturated 

 with carbolic or naphthaline, or pinned in cork-lined boxes or wrapped 

 in folded paper ; but none of these methods yield such satisfactory 

 results as immersion in alcohol in the form of methylated or any 

 other kind of spirit that may be available. 



Experiments with formalin as a preservative fluid for these 

 animals have hitherto met with failure. 



Specimens may be killed by plunging them direct into alcohol or 

 hot water. Drowning in cold water is an admirable but tedious 

 method. If alcohol be used for this purpose, it should be well diluted 

 with water. If undiluted, it is liable to stiffen and harden the 

 muscles and to shrink tlie softer tissues, so that the limbs cannot 

 subsequently be straightened, and the form of other organs may be 

 destroyed. After lying for twenty-four hours or thereabouts in weak 

 spirit, specimens may be transferred with safety to stronger alcohol. 



Specimens collected in the same locality may be indiscriminately 

 mixed in the same jar; but the smaller and more delicate examples 

 should be placed in separate glass tubes or wrapped in pieces of 

 paper, so that they may escape the chance of breakage by being 

 shaken up with the larger and harder examples. 



It is not advisable to plunge large Scorpions, Spiders, or Millipedes 

 while still alive into a jar of spirit already containing other 

 specimens. The latter are liable to be damaged by the writhing or 

 snapping of the former. 



Specimens from different localities must on no account be mixed 

 together, unless a locality-label is aflfixed to each. 



When packing for travel, care must be taken that the bottles or 

 jars be either entirely tilled with specimens, or, better still, half or 



