278 MICROSCOPY FOR BEGINNERS. 



of it is such that, independently of its higher merits, I 

 warmly recommend it as a pastime, than which, I be- 

 lieve, no other can excel it. At the same time, in ob- 

 serving the modes of life of those around me, it has 

 been a matter of increasing regret that so few, so very 

 few, people give attention to intellectual pursuits of any 

 kind. In the incessant and necessary struggle for bread, 

 we repeatedly hear the expression that ' man shall not 

 live by bread alone,' and yet it remains unappreciated 

 by the mass of even so-called enlightened humanity. 

 In common with all other animals, the engrossing care 

 of man is food for the stomach, while intellectual food 

 remains unknown, is disregarded or rejected." 



1. SCALES FEOM INSECTS' WINGS. Butterflies' wings 

 are profusely covered by minute scales of great beauty 

 of form and color. They differ widely in different 

 kinds of butterflies, and often on different parts of the 

 same wing. Gnats and mosquitoes are also a source of 

 supply for still more minute and curious scales. To 

 obtain them from the butterfly, brush the wing with a 

 small camel's -hair pencil, or gently scrape it with the 

 point of a penknife, and examine the fine dust that 

 falls. Gnats and mosquitoes may be allowed to fly 

 about in a small, perfectly dry phial, and the scales thus 

 knocked off are to be transferred to the slip by invert- 

 ing the bottle and tapping it against the glass. The 

 more mosquitoes imprisoned, of course the more numer- 

 ous will be the scales. The common clothes -moth is 



