enough of the preservative penetrates to that organ to prevent injury to the surrounding parts, if the mouth is well filled, and an iron rod or skewer employed to pierce the various parts of the head from the mouth. Some reptiles of this order have long necks; in them the neck may be skinned through an incision made in the lower part, where the neck joins the chest; but when the shell is removed, there is no difficulty in skinning the neck through the opening that is necessarily made. Chelonian reptiles may be stuffed with cotton, like mammalia, for the purpose of conveying them from one place to another. The larger lizards, crocodiles, alligators, &c. must be skinned and stuffed, and treated in all respects as mammalia. The smaller may be put into spirit. Frogs are very difficult to deal with: they are hard to skin and stuff; and when done, the colours for the most part fade. In spirit, the colours fade also, but not so much, perhaps as when preserved dry, while the form is kept better. Toads are generally of a sombre colour, and keep pretty well either stuffed or in spirit. It is not an agreeable thing to stuff a toad. It is done by putting a sharp-pointed pair of scissors into his mouth, cutting through the spine, and drawing it, and the whole of the inside, out through the mouth. The thighs and fore-legs are to be separated from the rest of the skeleton, and replaced in the skin; or if time is allowed, the skeleton itself may be denuded of all the soft parts, and replaced in the skin: and the skin is then to be filled by the mouth with sand. The feet should be fastened down with pins to a bit of card or soft wood, and the preparation put to dry: when dry, a hole should be made in the belly, to let out the sand, and it should be varnished with some good hard, colorless varnish: copal perhaps is the best*. Very large snakes may be stuffed as mammalia are, taking care, however, not to fill the skin so full as is generally done. The size of the artificial body should be as near possible that of the natural one. Small snakes should be kept in spirit of wine. FISHES. Fishes, if small, may be put into spirit of wine-if large, they must be skinned, very carefully, and stuffed. It is an easy way of stuffing fish, to make an incision along the side of the dorsal or back fin, laying the fish open from end to end. The back bone, and all the inside, is then to be taken out as close to the skin as may be, without cutting it; the arsenical soap is applied well over the inside, the incision sewed up, and the skin filled with sand by the mouth. When full, the mouth should be opened or shut, according to the position it is wished for it to remain in-a wire, twisted into a tripod at each end, is placed to support the fish, and allow it to dry; and when nearly dry, it must be varnished, with the same varnish as that recommended for reptiles; by which means, the colours are pretty well preserved. When the fish is quite dry, the sand must be poured out at the mouth, and the specimen is ready to be sent to its destination. CRUSTACEA. Crustacea are found in various situations. Some are to be met with in the nets of the fisherman; some, as the sea crabs, may be caught by a line, baited with a muscle; others are found running about the sides of tanks, rivers, and shores of the sea; and others again, the parasitic crustacea, in various situations about the bodies of animals, especially on the gills of fish, or fixed on their bodies. * Good copal varnish for this purpose is made by digesting powdered gum copal, without beat, for 48 hours, in spirit of turpentine: pouring off the clear turpentine, and allowing the varnish so made to evaporate in the sun to the proper consistence. By repeated digestions with turpentine, the whole of the copal may be dissolved, if pure; and the dissolution may be assisted by adding a little camphor to the turpen→ tine, before pouring it upon the gum. Crustaceous animals, such as crabs, lobsters, cray-fish, &c. may be all preserved in spirit of wine, but they generally lose their colours. Small ones may be dried as they are, but the larger specimens require to have the inside removed. Crabs are readily cleared, by taking off their shell, and drying it separated from the body, which has been previously freed from all the soft parts it contained. The corrosive sublimate solution is the best thing for the outside of crustacea, but arsenical paste should be smeared within. Great care is requisite to prevent crustacea being injured in drying, and they should be carefully packed in a good quantity of cotton, or the legs or antennæ will assuredly be broken. Crustacea may be killed, if altogether breathers of water, merely by taking them out of that element. If partially or wholly livers upon the land, spirit of wine kills them readily enough. But care must be taken in handling some of them; for the crabs in particular make nothing of casting off a leg or two, with as much ease as a lizard does his tail. INSECTS. The class INSECTA contains a vast variety of animals. The mode of preserving them, however, is very much alike in all. Insects are found in so many situations, that it is impossible to particu larize more than a few. Upon and within vegetables living and dead; between the bark and the wood, and in the trunks and holes of trees; in the loose earth at their roots; under stones or logs of wood that have long been lying on the ground; at the roots of grass; between the leaves that grow close along the stem of some plants, as the plantain, sugar-cane, and many of the grasses; in bones and horns, both within their hollow cavities and in their substance itself. Dead carcases of animals and putrid animal matter of all kinds contain some very beautiful specimens: and some of the finest kinds are found in water, both stagnant and running; in short, it is more easy to tell where insects may not be found than where they may. Insects that feed upon trees and high shrubs, may be caught by placing a table cloth beneath, and beating the branches with a pole; when the insects are shaken down upon the cloth, and easily seen. A white chattah answers the same purpose almost equally well with a table cloth, and is more convenient to carry; besides being serviceable in another way. They are easily taken in a net made of curtain gauze formed like a cabbage net, and fastened to a hoop at the end of a long stick. By making the handle of your net with joints like a fishing-rod, you are enabled to reach the higher branches. In using this net, which is well adapted for butter-flies, dragon-flies, bees, wasps, and other insects that are caught on the wing, a peculiar turn is given to bring the tail part of the net over the handle, doubling it on the rim; by which means the prey is prevented from escaping. Another net may be made to fold up, having two poles or handles on each side, made of bamboo, or other easily bending wood: these handles are straight until near the top, when they are bent off at nearly a right angle, and fastened together with a string, or two pieces of wire, looped together to form a hinge: the lower part of the side poles are fastened together at a proper distance, say two and a half or three feet, with a small cord, leaving enough of the lower ends, to form handles, by which to use the net. The whole is then to be covered with gauze, from the upper end down to the cord below, when the net is complete. To use it, little skill is required; one handle is taken in each hand, and it is held up open, against any insect it is wished to catch, and shut up by bringing the handles together quickly, when the insect is secured between the fold of the gauze. Large pincers with loops or rings, and with gauze between their loops, are also used; but the common nets, described above, are the best; and, indeed, all that are necessary. Coleopterous insects, or beetles; Hymeropterous, or wasps, bees, &c.; Hemipterous, or bugs, &c., and, indeed, all others, save the Neuroptera, or dragon-flies, and the Lepidoptera, or butter-flies, moths, &c. when caught, are to be put into a bottle containing a little spirit of wine. But those which have any particular marks of delicate colours, and those whose colours depend upon a powder strewn over them, must not be placed in spirit, but alive into boxes; and it is best to put but one insect into each box. Butter-flies must be taken between the thumb and finger, and pressed at the sides of the thorax, just under the wings, when they almost immediately die. Dragon-flies may be killed in the same manner. When the insects are brought home, those kept in the spirit should be taken out, and if of sombre colours, placed in a solution of corrosive sublimate for an hour or two, when they may be put upon pins, and made ready for preserving them. Those insects that cannot be placed in spirit, on account of their delicate colours, &c., should be taken out of the boxes, and put into a glass, or a wide-mouthed bottle, and the glass or bottle with the mouth closed may have a bit of camphor or a drop of æther, or a bit of carbonate of ammonia put into it, placed in a basin of hot-water, when they soon die. Prussic acid has been used for the same purpose, and its effects are said to be instantaneous: but its employment may be dangerous to the operator, if great care be not taken. When an insect is dead, it should be smeared over the under surface with arsenical soap, or LATREILLE's preservative, the preparation of which has been given before; a pin, proportioned to its size, must be run, if a beetle, through the right elytrum or wing-case, and brought through the under side, between the second and third leg; and then it must be placed in a box or drawer. Other insects of all kinds should have the pin run through the thorax, or piece of the back, just in front of the elytra, and brought out between the legs below. As a mere collector's cabinet, one convenient enough for the purpose may be made of any box; a French claret box, for instance, answers quite well enough, if provided with a close lid, to prevent ants and cockroaches from entering it, and fitted up with trays to run in grooves about 24 inches apart. The bottom of each tray must have a flat piece of solah well pressed; or a layer of cork, about of an inch thick, covered with paper, fastened on to it, will be better still, in which the pins, with the insects upon them, are to be stuck: or the top, bottom and sides of the box may be lined with solah or cork, so as to do without trays or drawers at all. Every fine day this box should be placed in the sun, to dry the specimens ; taking care to keep the lid shut, that the light may not enter: for light destroys the more delicate colours of insects. With these precautions, insects may be kept for any length of time: for when once well prepared, the only thing requisite is to keep them dry. Some very small insects cannot be run though with a pin. These should be placed upon a triangular piece of quill, cut into this form, the sharpest angle being introduced into the insect at its underside, between two of the rings of the abdomen. A pin is then run through the broad end, and the whole stuck in to the box thus . This is an improvement upon the plan hitherto recommended, of pasting the insect upon a triangular piece of card, inasmuch as it not only looks better, but it allows the under part of the insect to be seen, instead of hiding the characters of that part, which in some genera are very important. Spiders are difficult to preserve, without their losing their plumpness and beautiful colours. Spirit of wine has been recommended, and when it is used, a good many may be put into a bottle together. If it is wished to preserve them dry, they may have the inside of the abdomen squeezed out, through a hole made in their under surface, and the cavity filled with very finely chopped cotton, or with sand; and then they may be pinned into the boxes. LATREILLE recommends that the abdomen be cut off from the thorax, stuck upon a stick, and introduced into a bottle, fastening the stick into the cork, so as not to touch the sides, and holding the bottle over a lamp or fire, till the specimen becomes dry, which is then stuck on the thorax again. Any of these plans will do with some of the genera of spiders, tolerably, but none of them answer well. Caterpillars are in the same predicament as spiders, though a method of preserving them in all their beauty is said to have been discovered by Mr. ABBOTT, of Georgia, which seems to have been lost at his death. MOLLUSCA. Those animals which, as their name imports, have soft bodies, and which, for the most part, are covered with a true shell, are divided into two kinds: those which inhabit the land, and those which live in the water. The latter are again divided into fresh and salt-water Mollusca; and a third portion seems to dwell in marshes, the estuaries of rivers, &c., forming an union, as it were, between the other two. The fresh-water Mollusca are found in tanks, running streams, and watery places of all kinds, either lying at the bottom, or floating in the midst, or attached to weeds, stones, and other extraneous substances. Salt-water shells are found in similar situations in the sea; some bury themselves in the sand, which is covered at high-water by the tide; while others may be found floating along upon the surface of the waves; and dead specimens lie scattered upon the shore. Marsh shells are to be met with in the estuaries of rivers and in wet places, whenever the salt-water mingles with the fresh. The localities of land shells or snails, as they are generally called, are numerous. These shells are to be found upon the trunks and branches of trees, and lying or creeping beneath them; others are hidden under stones and pieces of timber, or weeds, or other vegetable matter. The best season to procure them is in the rains; and they are not found in abundance saving in moist places. Having learnt the localities of the various kinds of shells, no great skill is needed to procure them. Land-shells may of course be picked up with the hand, and taken home in a box: fresh-water shells, by looking for them in their dwelling places, and by dredging them up by a net. Sea-shells are dredged up by nets, having a kind of strong rake attached to the front, to rake them from the bottom; when by continuing to draw on the net, the shells fall into it and are caught. Pelagian shells, those that swim upon the waves in the middle of the sea, are procured by a kind of small net, that is towed in the wake of a ship, or cast by a dexterous hand upon the floating animal from the deck. It is in the form of a cabbage net, about a foot and a half in diameter, with a rim round the top, made heavy with shot; and fitted with a long line, to allow of its being towed, or pulled in again after it has been thrown. When procured, put the shells into boiling water, and boil them for a few minutes, to kill the animal; so that it may be removed in the spiral shells with a small hook, or a crooked pin: the animal of the bivalves may be taken out easily enough with the fingers, or a pair of forceps. But some of the very long spiral shells require to be left in water till the animal becomes so putrid that it may be washed out. The shell should then be cleaned with soap and water, dried, and kept in a box. In cleaning shells, great care must be taken not to break or injure their margins or mouths; and in land-shells, particularly, not to scrub off, or otherwise remove the epidermis, or skin-like substance that covers them. Each kind of shell should have a box to itself; and the box must be numbered, or the number may be written upon the shell itself, if it is large enough to allow of that being done. The numbers should refer to memoranda of the locality, kind of animal, or any other interesting particular concerning the specimen, that may be known to the writer. By carefully following these directions, a zoological collection may be made, that will, with tolerable care being taken of it, keep in any climate. The mounting, as it is called, or setting up the skins of birds and beasts, to look like the living animals, is another branch of the subject; and one that can be followed only by persons stationary, and with success, after long practice; but as it is the step, to which the foregoing instructions have been but preparatory, a few hints on that head will hereafter be given VII.-Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. The Honorable Sir EDWARD RYAN, President, in the Chair. Mr. F. CORBYN, proposed at the last meeting, was balloted for, and duly elected a Member of the Society. Messrs. H. PIDDINGTON, E. DEAN, and C. BROWNLO,w proposed at the last meeting, were upon the favorable Report of the Committee of Papers, elected Associate Members. The Secretary brought up and read the following Draft of a Memorial to the Honorable the Court of Directors, prepared by the Sub-Committee, nominated at the Meeting of the 1st July last. "To the Honorable the Chairman and Court of Directors of the East India Company. The Memorial and Humble Sheweth, Petition of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, That the Asiatic Society, as your Honorable Court is aware, was instituted in the year 1784, for the purpose of "Enquiring into the History, Civil and Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia." That since its institution, its exertions have been continually directed to the above objects; that it has numbered amongst its members all the most distinguished students of Oriental Literature; and that it has succeeded in bringing to light many of the hidden stores of Asiatic learning, and in drawing and keeping alive the attention of your Governments in India, to the great importance and advantage of such researches. That it was soon discovered, however, that mere individual efforts, or even the combined exertions of individuals, might, indeed, keep alive the spirit of inquiry, but could do little to diffuse amongst the people themselves, the knowledge of their ancient languages and literature, in which the whole of the legal and religious institutions of Hindusthan were embodied and preserved, and which, at the date of the introduction of British rule, were found in the exclusive possession of the priesthood, guarded with jealous monopoly as a means of influence and emolument, and doled out and interpreted to the uninitiated, as it suited their prejudices and interests. The public aid and encouragement of the existing Government was wanting to supply the resources formerly derived from the bounty of the native princes and nobles, which had shrunk in proportion as the British dominion advanced; and the necessity of it became at length so urgent, as to force itself upon the notice of the local authorities. Your Memorialists have only to refer to the recorded minute of the Right Honorable LORD MINTO, Governor General, dated 6th March, 1811, a copy of which is annexed. That the British legislature, upon the occasion of the renewal of the Charter Act of 1813, (53rd, George III. c. 55,) made an express provision, that " a sum of not less than one lakh of rupees, in each year, should be set apart, and applied to the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India." That in pursuance of the above enactment, the Supreme Government, accordingly, set apart the amount prescribed, which was appropriated, conjointly with sums previously granted by Government and other private endowments, partly towards the support or enlargement of the Sanscrit and Hindu Colleges of Calcutta and Benares; the Muhammedan Colleges of Calcutta and Delhi, the establishment of English Schools in these and other places; and partly towards the publication, as well of standard works, in the Sanscrit and Arabic languages, as of translations of English |