PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. 



known as from humanity and expediency might be 

 wished. Who first devised the experiment I am 

 ignorant ; but any 'repetition of means whereby a 

 necessary end can be obtained by the least painful 

 and brief infliction, will hardly be considered as 

 superfluous. 



This subject naturally introduces the preserva- 

 tion of the creatures after their death, and the 

 young entomologist is not perhaps sensible from 

 experience of the injury some species of insects 

 will effect in the selected specimens of others of 

 this race, and may lament, when too late, the sepa- 

 ration of the wings, limbs, and bodies of his collec- 

 tion by these tiny depredators (ptinus fur, acarus 

 destructor^). Mr. Waterton^s recipe for prevent- 

 ing this evil, I have used rather extensively, and 

 believe it to be a very effectual, and generally an 

 innocuous preservative ; but as this gentleman has 

 not given us the exact proportions of his mixture, 

 it may not be useless to observe, that if one part 

 of corrosive sublimate be dissolved in eight parts 

 of good spirit of wine, and the under side of the 

 insect touched with a cameFs-hair pencil, dipped in 

 the liquor, so as to let it lightly pervade every part 

 of the creature, which it readily does, it will, I ap- 

 prehend, prevent any future injury from insects. 

 A larger portion of the sublimate will leave an 

 unsightly whiteness upon the creature when the 

 specimen becomes dry. The under side of the 

 board, on which the insects are fixed, should be 

 warmed a little by the fire after the application, 



