Furniture Pests. 1 23 
if well aired afterwards ; but as it is highly explosive he advises the use of 
hydrocyanic acid gas as used for destroying insects under glass, etc. 
The cyanide treatment is deadly to all insect life and does not harm 
food or anything ; but care has to be taken that the poison is not eaten or 
the fumes inhaled by any person. 
You could only use the Chinosol for floors and crevices. 
Directions for using Hydrocyanic Acid Gas Indoors. 
The following are instructions sent to Mr. White with regard to 
the gas treatment. 
The proportions for hydrocyanic acid gas treatment are as follows : 
2 ozs. of cyanide of potassium. 
4 ozs. of sulphuric acid. 
7 ozs. of water, 
for 1,000 cubic feet of space. 
Proceed as follows : Add the 4 ozs. of acicl to the 7 ozs. water in a 
deep saucer or jam-pot ; then roll up the small lumps of cyanide in 
blotting-paper and drop into the acid and water. Leave for a couple 
of hours ; then freely ventilate the room ; do not enter it for an hour 
after ventilation, as, of course, you must not breathe the fumes, as they 
are deadly, and so is the cyanide. It would be safest to bury the 
residue, but it is innocuous. You can easily manage windows for 
ventilation, so as not to have to enter the room to do so. I should 
put the saucer just inside the door, so the arm can reach it, and 
drop the cyanide in blotting-paper into the saucer, shutting the door 
immediately. Of course, do not let people stand about outside the 
door, as some fumes may come through crevices, etc. Get the room 
as air-tight as possible. 
The proportions I give have been found sufficient in greenhouses 
to kill Pied Spider, Woodlice, Slugs, Aphis, and Caterpillars. 
The employment of this gas for Bud Mite in Currants (Eriophycs 
ribis) has not proved it to be successful. Sulphur in some form alone 
seems to affect acari. It is thus interesting to learn that fumigation 
with hydrocyanic acid gas did not affect this household pest, but Mr. 
White tells me he cleared it out by sulphur fumigation. 
Anobium tessellatum in St. Alban’s Cathedral. 
An insect, sent by Mr. Nathaniel Hicks, in oak from the roof of 
St. Alban’s Cathedral, proved to be one of the common Wood-boring 
Beetles — a serious furniture pest — known as the “ Death Watch ” 
(. Anobium tessellatum). 
