198 Transactions. — Zoology. 



concave one. When the spider is laid in such a ghiss on its back, the glass is 

 .as nearly as practicable filled with spirit, and the flat glass which may be 

 sqviare and a little largdt all round than the other, is sized down upon it. 

 The spider may then be seen in every direction, and it looks, in fact, like a 

 living creature swimming inside. The objections to this mode are its compara- 

 tive costliness, and the impossibility of avoiding the inevitably enclosed air- 

 bubble ; as regards the latter, however, its presence might be I'endered 

 harmless by slightly tilting the whole in the cabinet drawer ; this fully 

 presents the spider to the eye, and frees it also from contact with the air- 

 bubble. SpiderSj however, so preserved are sealed up from all higher 

 scientific purposes, such as the minute examination, under a strong lens, of 

 special portions of structure, and their often necessary dissection. 



Another mode, which I have practised successfully myself, is far easier, less 

 costly, and leaves the spider ftee for any scientific investigation, while it is yet 

 made a pleasing object for ordinary observers. My modus ojyerandi is fii'st to 

 catch the spider in a pill-box ; it is then rendered motionless in a minute or 

 two by a few drops of chloroform allowed to run into the box through the 

 slightly opened lid ; when perfectly insensible it is set out and secured in a 

 natural position on a piece of wood or cork, by means of pins placed wherever 

 needed (except through any pai-t of the spider) ; the whole is then placed in a 

 shallow jar, deep enough, however, to allow of sufiicient spirit being poured in 

 to cover the spider completely ; the jar is then co veiled over, and allowed to 

 remain undisturbed until the limbs ha,ve become sufficiently rigid, by the 

 action of the spirit, to allow of the removal of the pins without affecting the 

 natural position of the spider ; this will take place in a week or ten days, 

 more or less, according to circumstances ] the longer it is allowed to remain, 

 the less chance there is of the legs curling up afterwards. When removed, 

 after the limbs have become rigid, the spider is put carefully, with the fore- 

 legs downward, into a test-tube just large enough to admit it freely, without 

 unduly compressing the legs, the tube having previously had a slip of white 

 card-board inserted into it, exactly the width of the diameter of the tube, and 

 about three-fourths of its length ; this slip of card is to form a back-ground to 

 the spider, and to keep it steadily in one position ; the tube is then filled 

 perfectly full of clean spirit of wine, a parchment label containing the name of 

 the spider is inserted in an inverted position, so as to coil I'ound next to the 

 glass, just above the spider, and the tube's mouth is pretty firmly stopped with 

 a pledget of cotton wool, after which it is placed, wool downwards, in a broad- 

 mouthed, glass-stoppered bottle, large enough to contain from five to fifteen, 

 or so, tiibes, when ranged within in a single row close to the glass, and kept 

 in place by the whole vacant centre being firmly filled in with cotton-wool ; 

 the glass-stoppered bottle thus packed, is then filled up nearly to the brim 



