50 ROYAL ASTATIC SOCIETY, (CEYLON BRANCH.) 



preparations polarized well, owing to the fact that the mus- 

 cles were left entire and not injured by soaking in potash. 

 The absence both of air-bubbles and milkiness — even under 

 the searching illumination of the paraboloid— shewed how 

 successful were the methods employed, and the preservation 

 of soft parts, as in spiders and aphides, was remarkable." 



In the conversation that ensued after the reading of the 

 paper, " Mr. Loy stated that having looked over the collec- 

 tion he could speak favourably of the results attained. He 

 had paid more attention to the smaller insects than to the 

 larger ones, and many of them appeared to have been simply 

 dropped into the balsam without preparation. Instead of 

 finding them at all cloudy they were quite clear, and there 

 were very few air-bubbles. The muscles of the thorax and 

 legs were shewn beautifully, and in some of them the small 

 intestines and hepatic vessels could be clearly traced. He 

 thought that if they could succeed in doing in England 

 what had been done in the tropics, it would be worth much 

 trouble. A few of the parasites had been soaked in potash, 

 but the results were not so satisfactory. Mr. Mclntire said 

 that some time ago Mr. Curties shewed him a number of 

 these slides, and he was very much struck by many of them. 

 They seemed to throw much light upon some subjects of 

 interest to him. As to mounting insects in balsam at once, 

 it was a plan that he was very much in favour of ; they 

 should be killed in spirits and then transferred at once to 

 soft balsam. A little dirt would sometimes get in, but this 

 was less detrimental than some of the effects of mounting 

 in the usual way." 



I have given the foregoing rather lenghty extracts from 

 the Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club, merely to 

 shew that competent judges of insect mounting approve of 

 my method ; which may induce others to follow it. 

 Colpetty, 12th September, 1874. 



