BOTTLES AND VIALS, 57 
ject is fastened to the glass or mica by strings passed through 
holes bored for the purpose. These holes can readily be bored 
in glass, with a three-cornered file moistened with spirits of 
turpentine and mounted in a drillstock. When wax is used 
the specimen is fixed with insect pins. It is well to blacken the 
wax by melting it and stirring in lampblack. This forms a 
good background against which all details are readily seen. 
Great care should be exercised in selecting the wax, which 
should be pure. The common adulterations of wax are water, 
tallow and lard, and the presence of either of these produces 
a flocculent precipitate in alcohol, which settles on the spec- 
imen and ruins it, as it is very difficult to remove. 
For storage purposes it is not necessary to use so good a 
quality of glass as for exhibition. <A very useful article is the 
ordinary fruit jar with glass cover and screw top. The rub- 
ber of these jars will occasionally have to be renewed as the 
alcohol hardens the rubber and renders it brittle. At other 
times large copper cans are used, fitted with wide openings 
secured by screw covers, while for the largest forms special 
tanks of copper or zinc are made. A barrel can be readily 
fitted up for containing specimens, by carefully smoothing 
off one end, removing the head and adjusting a wooden 
cover with rubber packing over the end. ‘To the sides of the 
barrel are attached iron bars terminated by screws and these 
project through the lid and by means of nuts fasten it 
tightly. In any of these large storage vessels, numerous 
small specimens may be kept by wrapping each (with its 
label) in millinet, mosquito bar or coarse cotton cloth. The 
