72      PREPARATION  OF  MATCHES  FREE  FROM  PHOSPHORUS. 
in  the  Crimea,  and  the  insect  which  damaged  the  French  cart- 
ridges appears  to  have  been  imported  in  the  wood  of  the  cases 
in  which  they  were  packed.  The  insects  do  not  eat  the  lead,  but 
simply  bore  it  out.  In  1833  Audouin  exhibited  to  the  Entomo- 
logical Society  of  Paris  sheet  lead  from  the  roof  of  a  building 
deeply  grooved  by  insects.  In  1844  Desmarest  mentioned  ero- 
sions of  sheet  lead  by  a  species  of  Bostriche  (B.  Capueina), 
and  illustrated  the  fact  by  cartridges  from  the  arsenal  at  Turin. 
Mr.  Westwood,  the  well-known  British  entomologist,  has  re- 
corded observations  on  the  perforation  of  lead  by  insects.  M. 
Bouteille,  curator  of  the  Museum  of  Natural  History  at  Gre- 
noble, sent  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  from  the  col- 
lection under  his  charge  specimens  of  cartridges  gnawed  by  in- 
sects, which  were  found  in  situ,  and  the  reports  on  the  subject 
by  Marshal  Vaillant,  de  Quartrefages,  and  Milne  Edwards, 
state  the  insect  to  be  Sir  ex  gigas  a  large  hymenopterous  species, 
which,  in  the  larva  state,  lives  in  the  interior  of  old  trees  or 
pieces  of  wood,  and  which,  after  the  completion  of  its  meta- 
morphosis, quits  its  retreat  for  the  purpose  of  reproduction. 
Scheurer-Kestner,  in  1861,  communicated  to  the  French  Acad- 
emy a  notice  of  the  erosion  by  an  insect  of  the  sheet  lead  of  a 
new  sulphuric  acid  chamber.  The  creature  was  caught  in  the 
act  of  escaping  through  the  lead,  having  been  imprisoned  be- 
tween it  and  a  wooden  support.  But  perhaps  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  case  of  insect  erosion  is  that  of  stereotype 
metal,  which  was  communicated  in  1843  by  M.  du  Boys  to  the 
Agricultural  Society  of  Limoges. —  Chem.  News,  Oct  1,  1864. 
THE  PREPARATION  OF  MATCHES  FREE  FROM  PHOS- 
PHORUS. 
Hierpe  has  published*  the  following  receipts  for  a  composition 
for  the  heads  of  matches,  and  for  an  igniting  surface.  That  for 
the  matches  is  as  under ; 
Chlorate  of  potash        .        .        .    4  to  6  parts. 
Bichromate  of  potash    ...    2  " 
Ferric  oxide        .         ...    2  " 
Strong  glue        .        ...    3  «< 
*  Polytech.  Centralblatt,  1864,  p.  696. 
