528 ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &c. 
after several years trial, I am of Bohm’s opinion, who 
had tried it nine years*, that it is superior to any other 
method; particularly, because it not only effectually kills 
the insects, and they may be put together into it while 
you are collecting, if you have no reason for keeping 
them separate, of all sorts and sizes, in a wide-mouthed 
phial, without danger of their devouring each other: 
but when you come home wearied with a long day’s 
hunt, you may let your insects remain in it without in- 
jury till the next morning. In collecting beetles abroad, 
when there is a want of store-boxes the readiest way is 
to put them into a wide-mouthed bottle or jar filled with 
any spirit, and send them home in it: some few may lose 
their colours, or become greasy; but in general they will 
receive little injury. This method saves room, and avoids 
the risk of breakage. ‘The derangement which some 
hairy species sustain from this method may be readily 
repaired by brushing them with a dry camel’s hair 
pencil. 
When you wish to take the insects you have immersed 
in spirits out of the phial, you must strain its contents 
through a piece of muslin, return the spirit into it for 
future use, and spread the insects separately upon blot- 
ting-paper, to absorb the moisture remaining about them. 
With regard to such as you have in boxes or phials with- 
out spirit, these must be immersed in a basin of boiling 
water. First empty into it the contents of your béxes, 
and next, those of your phials; giving each, before you 
take out the cork, a smart rap, that the insects adhering 
to the latter may drop to the bottom: or you may im- 
2 hg. Mag. iii. 222, 
