"book "-BOXES AND CABINETS. 287 



allowed to handle the various lethal agents with which these 

 chapters necessarily abound. 



Another sort of store box is the book box, hinged at the back 

 and opening along the front, representing two distinct volumes of 

 a book. This is either covered in cloth, labelled with gilt letters, 

 or is made in mahogany, the bands let in in ebony, or white 

 wood, and strips of lettered leather pasted in between them.* All 

 around the box inside runs a little ledge of wood for the reception 

 of glass, which, as each half is filled with insects, is pasted in 

 with ornamental paper. For those who delight in camphor, a 

 piece of perforated cardboard or cork should be placed in the 

 corners, forming angle pieces, and enclosing within the triangle 

 thus formed, the (un)necessai'y morsels of the drug. When 

 filled, it should be pasted over on the top, and the glass then 

 fits close on top of it. Book boxes have one or two advantages : 

 they look well in a library and take up but little room, and are 

 easily handled when showing them to friends. As exhibition 

 boxes they are nearly perfect. 



Cabinets. — The entomological cabinet is a much more serious 

 matter ; there is no limit to its size, from the modest one of six 

 drawers to the " working " one of thirty. The size of the 

 drawers varies with individual taste. A nice size, however, is 

 18|in. long by 16|in. by 2^in., or the 20in. by 18in. by 2^in., or 

 deeper if for large insects. No amateur, unless he is a past 

 master at joinery, can hope to construct a thoroughly well-made 

 cabinet; indeed, few cabinet makers know how to turn out 

 one to suit a veteran entomologist. Briefly : the drawers of a 

 first-class cabinet should be made of the best Spanish maho- 

 gany, or oak, in every part; no "bay wood," "cedar," or any 

 such spurious stuff should enter into its composition (good 

 white pine being preferable to such). Cedar is totally unfit for 

 store boxes or cabinets, owing to its tendency to throw out in 

 time a gummy exudation, which settles on the wings of the 

 insects and utterly ruins them. This remark applies also to 

 cabinets for eggs. The frames which hold the covering glass 

 should preferably fit by a tongue resting in a groove, ploughed 

 with a "filister " in the substance of the drawer itself. A fillet 

 should rest inside, fitting against the inner edge of the frame, 



* See remarks on page 228. 



