8o THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



to fill a volume with drawings of great scientific accuracy. 

 Some of the figures were magnified, and for this purpose 

 he had brought with him from Poole two lenses, which 

 he contrived to mount very decently in bone, securing 

 the substance from the dinner-table, and grinding and 

 shaping it wholly by himself. The lens itself was 

 neatly set in putty ; and this rough but sufficient instru- 

 ment was the only microscope which he was able to 

 procure for many years. It rendered him an immense 

 amount of service in his investigations. He also made a 

 scale for his own use, out of an old tooth-brush handle ; 

 graduating it on one side to tenths, and on the other side to 

 twelfths, of an inch ; and this, in contempt of all modern 

 improvements, he continued to use until the year of his 

 death. His journal for 1833 closes with the following 

 remarks : — 



^^ December 31. — One year of my entomological 

 " researches in this country has passed away. It has 

 " been to me a pleasant and a profitable one ; for, though 

 " I have not been so successful as I anticipated in the 

 " capture of insects, I have gained a good stock of 

 " valuable scientific information, as well from books as 

 " from my own observations. The season has been, from 

 " its shortness and the general coldness of the weather, 

 "particularly unfavourable to the pursuits of the ento- 

 " mologist ; several species of insects which I have 

 " noticed in former years have been either very scarce 

 " or altogether wanting. I have not seen a single 

 "specimen of the large swallow-tailed butterflies this 

 "year, nor heard of one, though some years I have 

 " observed one yellow species in considerable numbers. 

 " The Camberwell Beauty, too, I have not met with. 

 " The claims of business, moreover, have prevented me 

 " from giving so much time and attention to science as 



