THE PRESERVATION OF MUSEUM SPECIMENS FROM INSECTS AND 

 THE EFFECTS OF DAMPNESS, 



By Walter Hough, A. M. 



The preservation of museum specimens is of no less importance than 

 their acquisition. Periodically the attack of some new insect, or the 

 infesting of some new material, is brought to the notice of curators, and 

 hitherto many specimens have been destroyed which it would be now 

 impossible to replace. In a great museum the abundance of the mate- 

 rial will not permit its frequent examination, so that all specimens 

 should be thoroughly poisoned before they get out of sight. There are 

 many things which one would not think it necessary to poison, yet all 

 should be, for nearly all organic structures have peculiar enemies in 

 the insect world. As instances, woodwork, basketry, textiles, botan- 

 ical specimens, etc., should be poisoned with corrosive sublimate, as it 

 coagulates the albuminoid principles in vegetation and thereby pre- 

 vents decay as well as the attacks of insects. 



The ravages of moths have been experienced from remote times, and 

 though the preservation of materials from the attacks of these and other 

 insects has been repeatedly attempted, all efforts, it seems, have so far 

 been ineffectual. Most of the chemical substances suggested are too 

 poisonous to be used on articles brought in contact with the person, 

 as in every-day wear. Happily this is no objection here, for with ordi- 

 nary precautions the specimens sent to the Museum can be treated with 

 the strongest poisons, the main difficulty being to avoid damaging the 

 material in their application. 



First in rank of destructiveness are the moths, of which four species 

 have been observed at active work in the Museum. These are Tinea 

 flavifrontella Linn., the common, or clothes, moth; T. tapetzella Linn., or 

 carpet moth; T. pellionella Linn., or fur moth, and T. granella Linn., or 

 grain moth. These Tineids are night-flying insects, though the little 

 fluttering " millers " are often seen flying in darkened rooms in the day- 

 time. Their natural habitat is in -dry animal and fibrous vegetable sub- 

 stances, and sometimes on the fur of living animals ; in houses they 

 infest woolens, furs, grain, etc., and the destruction caused by the larvae 

 is well known. They begin to fly about actively in May. I have ob- 

 served them in warm rooms as early as March, and have found the 

 larvee all through the winter. In the stage in which this insect does 



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