DYEING, BLEACHING, ETC. 55 



To cleanse the fingers after waxing the tying 

 silk, a drop of turpentine is as good as anything 

 else. I keep a collapsible tube filled with 

 turpentine in the same box with that containing 

 the wax. 



Of recipes for preserving material from moths, 

 the number is as great as the greater number 

 are useless. Taxidermists wash the skins they 

 set up with a weak solution of corrosive sub- 

 limate, and Mr. Halford recommends fly dressers 

 to follow the same plan. It is probably the 

 most permanent and efficient preventative known, 

 but great care must be exercised in using it, 

 as the corrosive sublimate (bisulphide of mercury) 

 is a most virulent poison, in whatever way it is 

 introduced into the system. It was formerly 

 used for washing sheep, but this practice, 

 I believe, has been abandoned as too dangerous. 



Albo-carbon (naphthaline) is mentioned by the 

 Kev. Theodore Wood as a good preservative. It 

 should be kept in the boxes along with the 

 feathers. 



" Benzine Collas," as a destroyer of the moths 

 at whatever stage of life they may be from the 

 egg to the perfect insect has the authority of the 

 same eminent entomologist ; also that of the late 

 Mr. Frank Buckland. A little should be poured 

 on a pad of cotton wool, the latter placed in the 

 box with the feathers, and the lid closed tightly 

 over it. The operation should be repeated at 

 intervals of a few months. 



In several portions of "Curiosities of Natural 

 History " I find Mr. Buckland strongly and 

 unreservedly recommending an herb called 

 "feverfew." He says that moths "will not go 

 near it." At the time he wrote it was sold at 

 Covent Garden, but I cannot say whether it is 

 still to be obtained. Perhaps some London 

 reader will make the experiment. I learn from 



