22 
INSTRUCTIONS IN LEPIDOPTERA. 
kept out of doors, the larva is as nearly as possible in a state 
of nature, and no doubt larvae are quite of Mr. Squeers’ 
opinion, that u it is a blessed thing to be in a state of nature.” 
How to hill Lepidoptera. 
The inodes of killing in use among collectors are very 
various; some use prussic acid, some use chloroform ; bruised 
laurel leaves is a convenient way of obtaining the effects of 
the former poison, without placing anything dangerous in the 
hands of young people. The receipt for preparing them is as 
under. 
Gather one hundred laurel leaves, the juiciest you can find 
(yet they must on no account be wet when gathered); take 
two or three at a time, and hammer them till they are well 
bruised; then with a pair of scissors cut them into small 
pieces—as small as you like, and place them in an air-tight 
vessel, so secured by some contrivance that the pieces shall 
not roll about loose. 
For large moths and sphinges it is necessary to use a more 
violent poison, and a quill dipped in saturated solution of 
oxalic acid should be inserted beneath the thorax of the in¬ 
sect, by which means the largest species may be killed almost 
instantly. Those who want an off-hand way of killing insects 
when neither acids, laurel leaves or chloroform are at hand, 
will find that by burning one or two brimstone matches under 
an inverted tumbler, beneath which the insects to be killed 
have been placed, and leaving the inverted tumbler full of 
the sulphureous fumes for a few minutes the insects will be 
completely killed, but green moths will be liable to lose their 
colour. 
