94 
INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLLECTING 
impunity. Scorpions, Centipedes, and large Spiders, on the contrary, 
are poisonous, and should be treated with caution. They can be 
safely picked up with forceps. Scorpions, too, may without much 
risk be seized by the end of the tail, the sting being firmly grasped 
between the finger and thumb; and even the largest Spiders, being 
unable to strike upwards, may be safely seized from above with a 
handkerchief. 
Preservation and Packing. — Scorpions, Spiders, Centipedes, Milli- 
pedes, and their allies should, if possible, be preserved in alcohol. If 
alcohol be unobtainable, they may be packed in sawdust saturated 
with carbolic or naphthaline, or pinned in cork-lined boxes or wrapped 
in folded paper ; but none of these methods yield such satisfactory 
results as immersion in alcohol in the form of methylated or any 
other kind of spirit that may be available. 
Experiments with formalin as a preservative fluid for these 
animals have hitherto met with failure. 
Specimens may be killed by plunging them direct into alcohol or 
hot water. Drowning in cold water is an admirable but tedious 
method. If alcohol be used for this purpose, it should be well diluted 
with water. If undiluted, it is liable to stiffen and harden the 
muscles and to shrink the softer tissues, so that the limbs cannot 
subsequently be straightened, and the form of other organs may be 
destroyed. After lying for twenty-four hours or thereabouts in weak 
spirit, specimens may be transferred with safety to stronger alcohol. 
Specimens collected in the same locality may be indiscriminately 
mixed in the same jar ; but the smaller and more delicate examples 
should be placed in separate glass tubes or wrapped in pieces of 
paper, so that they may escape the chance of breakage by being 
shaken up with the larger and harder examples. 
It is not advisable to plunge large Scorpions, Spiders, or Millipedes 
while still alive into a jar of spirit already containing other 
specimens. The latter are liable to be damaged by the writhing or 
snapping of the former. 
Specimens from different localities must on no account be mixed 
together, unless a locality-label is affixed to each. 
When packing for travel, care must be taken that the bottles or 
jars be either entirely filled with specimens, or, better still, half or 
