PREPARATIONS FOR A CABINET. 
19 
PREPARATIONS FOR A CABINET. 
There are several ways to prepare lepidopterous insects for the 
cabinet. I need mention bnt two : one by the ordinary method of 
spreading the wings and with a pin thrust through the thorax, well 
known and used by most collectors the world over since man began 
to collect and preserve the beautiful objects of nature ; and the other 
by a new and improved method invented by the author in 1894. 
After having accumulated a beautiful collection of butterflies 
and moths from different parts of the world, only to see it finally 
destroyed in spite of all the care I had bestowed upon it, and know¬ 
ing my experience had been that of hundreds of other persons, the 
necessity of some means by which specimens might be kept safe from 
the many dangers which threaten them forced itself upon me. As 
the result of a good deal of thought and many experiments, I 
invented a simple, light, strong, glass-covered tablet which not only 
renders the destruction of the specimens impossible, but puts them 
in a shape at once more beautiful, and infinitely neater, than was pos¬ 
sible by the antiquated method of impaling them on pins — a prey 
to insects and a refuge for dust — and liable to be broken even by 
a careless breath. 
Some of the advantages of my invention over the old method of 
pinning insects are these : 
They are protected against breakage, dust and museum pests, and 
specimens once so put up are good for hundreds of years. 
A collection thus mounted needs no care whatever, neither is it 
necessary to have tight boxes or cabinets ; and one may leave his col¬ 
lection indefinitely without the least danger. 
There is no odor from the specimens, neither is it necessary to 
fumigate the cabinet at all, and the vile smells caused by the use of 
naphthaline and bisulphide of carbon are entirely done away with. 
There are no pins to obstruct a view of the specimens, or to make 
them appear as if impaled alive. 
There is no danger in showing the collection to any one, and the 
most valuable specimens may be handed around for a close inspection 
of their beauties without the least danger of breakage. 
