48 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



A VALUABLE PRESERVING FLUID. 



The Zoologischer Afizeiger, edited by 

 Prof. J. V. Carus of Leipzig, Germany 

 (No. 45, December 29, p. 669-70), pub- 

 lishes the Letters Patent of the Wickers- 

 heim Preserving Fluid. The inventor 

 claims that animal or vegetal bodies im- 

 pregnated with this fluid or kept in the 

 same will retain their form, color and flex- 

 ibility in the most perfect manner. The 

 objects to be preserved are put in the fluid 

 for from six to twelve days, according to 

 their size, then taken out and dried in the 

 air. The ligaments remain always soft 

 and movable, and the preserved animals 

 or plants are for many years fit for anatom- 

 ical dissection. In order to perfectly pre- 

 serve the color it is necessary to leave the 

 objects in the fluid, or, if taken out and 

 dried, to keep them in air-tight vessels. 



This preserving fluid is made in the fol- 

 lowing way : Dissolve 100 g. alum, 25 g. 

 common salt, 12 g. salpetre, 60 g. potash 

 and 10 g. arsenious acid in 3,000 g. boiling 

 water. Filter the solution and when cooled 

 add to 10 litres of the fluid 4 litres gly- 

 cerine and one litre methyl-alcohol. 



We understand that the German govern- 

 ment, after thoroughly testing the value of 

 the mixture as a preservative fluid, paid a 

 handsome sum for the patent, and now 

 publishes the recipe /r^ bono publico. 



USE OF BUCKWHEAT TO DESTROY INSECTS. 

 Here is something new to us in the way 

 of an insecticide. It comes to us from the 

 other side of the Atlantic. Perhaps it 

 works on the principle of the " hair of the 

 same dog curing his bite," for it has long 

 been claimed that a too free use of buck- 

 wheat cakes caused cutaneous eruptions in 

 man, and that the raw grain had a similar ef- 

 fect upon birds . It is a fact, also, well known 

 to entomologists, that the plant is wonder- 

 fully free from insect attacks. The Tar- 

 tarian buckwheat referred to in the fol- 

 lowing extract from The Farmer (Lond.), 

 has a rough kind of grain different from 

 the ordinary varieties, and it is sometimes 

 cultivated in the New England States under 

 the name of Merino Buckwheat : 



Many 3'ears' practical experience has convinced 

 M. Lagarde that sowing buckwheat in soils in- 

 fested by white worms, grubs, ants, etc., etc., 

 allowing it to grow till it flowers, and then 

 plowing or digging it in as green manure, effect- 

 ually frees them from all their subterranean para- 

 sites. The proportion of buckwheat to be sown 

 is about a hectolitre per hectare. The crop, es- 

 pecially the variety known as Tartary buckwheat, 

 springs up rapidly, chokes all the weeds, and ab- 

 stracts but little nitrogen from the soil as it draws 

 its principal nutriment from the atmosphere. It 

 further possesses the property of decomposing 

 very quickly in a good soil, doubtless owing to 

 the spongy nature of its leaves. This decompo- 

 sition is immediate, and it is at this moment that 

 larvjE, etc., underground are asphyxiated by 

 the large quantities of gas disengaged. M. La- 

 garde further suggests that good results might be 

 obtained in combating the phjdloxera by sowing 

 buckwheat among the vines in close rows, and 

 digging the 3'oung crop in with the fork as near 

 to their roots as possible. 



Early Stages of Ephemerid^. — The 

 Rev. A. E. Eaton would like to communi- 

 cate with anybody who would supply 

 him with examples in fluid of nymphs 

 of some of the American genera of Ephem- 

 eridae. He would readily offer to pay a 

 fair price for them and would defray their 

 carriage to England. All that would be 

 required would be 5 or 6 nearly full grown 

 examples of one species per genus, put up 

 in narrow tubes or narrow cylindrical bot- 

 tles (one tube for each set) containing a so- 

 lution of two parts of water to three of 

 spirits about 60 over proof, well corked, 

 and with the cork tied down. Some tissue 

 paper should be put into each tube with 

 the specimens, to prevent the solid contents 

 moving about within the tube when its po- 

 sition is shifted, care being taken not to 

 compress the insects ; and the tube should 

 be filled up as nearly as possible with the 

 fluid to the exclusion of air-bubbles. The 

 tubes should be packed up with cotton 

 wool or tow in a box, so that they shall be 

 kept upright during the voyage ; and this 

 box should be packed into a stronger case 

 with tow or hay or straw, and forwarded 

 to Mr. Eaton by express, or through the 

 agency of some bookseller, not through the 

 Post Office. Address Rev. A. E. Eaton, 

 51 Park Road, Bromley, Kent, England. 

 We bespeak consideration of Mr. Eaton's 

 request by those of our subscribers inter- 

 ested in the Ephemeridce. 



