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 



