jflttnj) llatnralist : 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 35. JUNE 26th, 1880. Vol. 1. 



PACKING INSECTS, &C, 

 FOR TRANSMISSION BY 

 POST. 



Yt N insect having readied u 3 in 

 J?\ fragments, induces us to pen a 

 few lines on the subject of packing 

 specimens for transmission through 

 the post. Few things have contributed 

 more to the spread of Entomological 

 knowledge than the facility afford ;d by 

 our postal service of exchanging i peci- 

 mens with other collectors. It \s as of 

 immense value before the reduction in 

 the rates, but now when a box weigh- 

 ing 2 ounces can be sent for 2c., no 

 collector, however poor, but can rfford 

 to send away his duplicates by post, 

 receiving others in lieu of them. It is 

 of the first importance that they should 

 ibe. sent so as to receive no damage in 

 their transmission, or at all even ;s, to 

 reduce their chance of being injured to 

 a minimum. Now it must be remem- 

 bered that one great feature of our 

 postal arrangements is the speed with 

 which all matters connected with it is 

 carried out. A letter posted in the 

 most distant corner of England late in 

 the evening is delivered in Loidon 

 early the next morning, and even in 

 the rural districts, there are few places 

 that have not the opportunity of reply- 



ing to correspondence the same day 

 that it is received. This speed could 

 not be kept up unless every exertion 

 was made to ensure it, and there are 

 few busier scenes than the inside of a 

 post office in a large town, when the 

 hour approaches for making up the 

 mail bags. The stamping and cancel- 

 ling of stamps, though done by hand, 

 is done with the quickness and pre- 

 cision of a machine, and no doubt by 

 practise, the letter stamper works quite 

 mechanically, and no amount of 

 cautions on the address itself will avert 

 the blow when once the stamp is 

 raised. Besides the danger from this 

 source, letters and parcels are thrown 

 about roughly, and handled in a way 

 that does not promise well for the 

 safety of such delicate things as the 

 antennae of Butterflies, or the empty 

 shells of bird's eggs, and in some 

 places, to save time by not stopping 

 the mail en route, mechanical ap- 

 pliances have been resorted to for 

 throwing out the mail bags and receiv- 

 ing others as the train rushes past the 

 stations. It will be readily understood 

 that fragile things will be in consider- 

 able peril at these places. When the 

 Irishman fell off the ladder, he said it 

 was not the fall that hurt him, but the 



