49 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Feb 
ing department and we note that the prices of individual 
slides have been largely revised. 
PREPARING InsEOT Ea@as.—As there has been no reply 
to my queries (Mounting Methods, ante, p. 154) as to de- 
vitalizing, preparing, and mounting insect eggs, it would 
appear to be a department of microscopical work in 
which much has not been done, and, as a small contribu- 
tion to micro-technique, it is only fair that I should re- 
late my own recent experience. At the time of writing 
I had a Vapourer moth, fresh from the chrysalis, which 
was ovipositing unimpregnated eggs in the pill-box in 
which it was brought to me. On the death of the moth 
I removed about half the eggs still attached to the white 
surface paper of the box. These were easily removed by 
a thin knife-blade. Being still firmly attached to the © 
paper and to each other, they were easily divided into 
two smaller masses. One group I dropped into methy- 
lated spirit and the other into turpentine. I allowed 
- them to macerate for a fortnight, when I removed them, 
still firmly fixed to the paper and to each other. They 
were then placed in a glass-topped box for another fort- 
night, so that they might thoroughly dry. The question 
was whether they would retain their plump, natural ap- 
pearance, and whether they would be affected by the soak- 
ing, or would shrivel or collapse in the drying process. 
At the end of the first week it looked as though both 
batches would turn out right. At the end of the second - 
week those in the turpentine remained.absolutely unal- 
tered, fresh, plump, and fully distended, but the spirit- 
soaked batch had nearly every egg more or less shriveled, 
with the upper face depressed or pulled down, as it were, 
with the periphery more or less flattened and the two 
sides drawn together. The turpentine group I put into 
a cell on crimson paper with a removable cover, and at 
this moment of writing, three months after the eggs were 
