CABINETS. 121 



is abundance of room for a book-case to stand above them, 

 which is not only convenient, but has an agreeable effect. 

 The drawers should be enclosed in front by two folding 

 doors, all the edges of which must be carefully covered 

 with velvet; by this precaution dust is effectually excluded. 

 Each drawer should be from fifteen to eighteen inches 

 square, and two or two and a half inches deep ; the smaller 

 size is sufficient for British insects, the larger for tropical 

 or extra-European. Each drawer should be covered with 

 thin slices of very soft cork ; these slices are glued toge- 

 ther at the edges, and fastened to the bottom of the drawer 

 by small tacks and glue, the tacks, or rather brads, being 

 without heads. When the cork is secured its surface must 

 be made perfectly smooth by rubbing it with pumice-stone, 

 and the whole is then neatly covered with white paper, the 

 paper being pasted on the cork. It will be found that the 

 cork admits the pin on which an insect is placed, to pass 

 into it with the greatest facility, and yet is sufficiently elas- 

 tic to retain it steadily in its place. The sides of the draw- 

 ers must be double, leaving a vacant space for powdered 

 camphor, a substance that serves to preserve all specimens 

 of Natural History from the attacks of moths, mites, &c., 

 which would otherwise find their way in, and cause rapid 

 devastation. The drawer is covered by a pane of the best 

 flatted glass, carefully fixed with putty in a square frame, 

 and the frame is nicely fitted to the drawer, thus ensuring 

 the exclusion of any dust that may have passed the folding 

 doors. 



Before placing insects in a cabinet, it is usual to rule the 

 paper at the bottom of the drawers with ink or pencil lines, 

 thus providing for the arrangement of the insects in paral- 

 lel columns, of a width varied in proportion to the size of 

 the insects. In the first edition of the ' Grammar of Ento- 

 mology,' the author recommended this plan, but he has 



