THE SUBSTITUTE. 
117 
pretty material for that purpose. 
I have no partitions between the 
drawers, they riding on runners 
working in grooves in ihe sides of 
tlie drawers, thus saving wood, 
labour and considerable space ; 
the folding-doors are panelled, the 
tops of the panels being elliptical ; 
this is the only ornament, except 
the usual plinth and top nosing. 
The cost to me, including lock, 
bolts, &c., is a trifle under 5s. 6d. 
per drawer. It still wants corking 
and glazing; I have purchased the 
cork three-sixteenths of an inch 
thick, machine-cut ; this will cost 
me lid. per drawer of 15^ by 16| 
inches, — of course 1 do the laying 
myself; the glass I have also pro- 
cured, which costs me 9d. per 
drawer. I thus get a really good 
substantial walnut cabinet com- 
plete for a trifle over 7s. per 
drawer: in mahogany it would be 
something less. I ought to men- 
tion that I do not have frames for 
the glass, a rabbet is provided, and 
the part on which the glass rests 
is laid with narrow velvet, or the 
glass itself could have the velvet 
attached: this soft bed effectually 
excludes dust, and a clear view of 
the insect is thus olitained, so much 
obstructed by the heavy unsightly 
frames generally used, effecting a 
saving, too, of about 2s. per drawer. 
The “ benefactor,” therefore, of 
whom you spoke, is found. The 
person who constructed mine is 
ready to do the like again, charging 
merely for materials and labour. 
I should be glad to give I'urlher 
information to any one and to 
superintend the making, as in 
my own. — Geouge Gascoyne, 
Newark, Notlinghamshire ; De- 
cember 8, 1856. 
EXTRACTS. 
The Study of Entomology. 
[Continued from p. 35.] 
“ If Entomology had no higher 
claim to our respect than as an 
interesting amusement, supplying 
employment for the idle, we should 
be among its patrons ; for some- 
thing is gained when a human 
mind is rescued from inactivity 
and fixed upon an object of re- 
search, especially if that object be 
a part of the great kingdom of 
Nature. But to speak of the 
Science as if this were its only 
purpose would be derogatory to its 
claims, and in the highest degree 
unjust to the many intelligent, 
educated men, who, with great 
powers of observation and research, 
have devoted their time to the 
study of insects. Entomology ex- 
plains the economy of a world 
which to most men is as novel as 
if it were a new creation. The 
insect world, minute as are its 
inhabitants, is one in which we 
discover the e.xistence of all the 
affections and passions actuating 
and governing vertebrated ani- 
mals. Here, as in other kingdoms 
of Nature, we perceive the effects 
of oppression and of fear, of 
courage and of timidity, of the 
avarice of accumulation and of the 
indulgence of selfishness. Among 
the pigmy individuals of this great 
kingdom we observe in some a 
cruel indifference to the rights and 
lives of others ; in some an amiable 
love of offspring and attachment 
to friends ; and among them all, 
in an exaggerated degree, those 
peculiarities of habit and tempera- 
ment, and those contests and 
