TAXIDERMY. 127 



are large, and it has the advantage of preserving 

 the interior organs, which may be examined when 

 there is occasion. As heavy insects may unfix 

 themselves from the cork or wax in the pasteboard 

 boxes, and one loose insect may break all the rest, 

 it is a more simple method of preserving coleoptera 

 to place them, when dry, in a box of very fine sand. 

 We first put a row of insects on a layer of sand, 

 then cover them with another layer of sand, about 

 an inch thick; we then place a second row of in- 

 sects, and continue this method until the box is 

 quite full : the sand must be well heaped up, that 

 nothing may be deranged by the carriage. This 

 is also a good method for Crustacea. It is evident 

 that we cannot employ it for butterflies, or any 

 animals of a soft substance. The first ought to be 

 placed in boxes, the latter in spirits. 



We particularly desire travellers to send spiders 

 ^ind insects which are said to be venomous ; those 

 which are most destructive, such as termites or 

 white ants.; and to add the nests when they 

 are sufficiently solid for conveyance. The in- 

 sects to which medical properties are attributed ; 

 those which are employed in dyeing, as the 

 different species of cochineal; the animal which 

 produces the gum lac ; those whose excretions, 

 mixed with oil, form a species of wax, used for 

 candles ; the different species of silk worms, their 

 cods; the butterflies to which these silk worms give 



G 4 



