This state of affairs has been beautifully depicted by an American naturalist; his words described a by no means unlikely final scene on this earth of ours. He wrote: “When the moon shall have faded from the sky and the sun shall shine at noonday, a dull cherry red, and the seas shall be frozen over, and the ice-cap shall have crept downward to the Equator from either pole, and no keel shall cut the waters, nor wheels turn in mills, when all cities shall have long been dead and crumbled into dust and all life shall be on the very last verge of extinction on this globe, then, on a bit of lichen, growing on the bald rocks beside the eternal snows of Panama, shall be seated a tiny insect, preening its antennæ in the glow of the worn-out sun, representing the sole survival of animal life on this our earth--a melancholy ‘bug.’” There is probably no field more interesting for the microscopist than that provided by the insect world. Unlimited explorations may be made with the certainty of finding something new at every turn. Most people begin their studies of insect life with butterflies and moths; some folk to their loss never proceed further. We may well follow the usual course, and make a butterfly our first study. Any butterfly or moth will do for our purpose, any one with coloured wings, for some have clear wings like those of the bees and wasps, but they are not very common, so that we shall probably find a suitable specimen at the first attempt. The more highly coloured the specimen, the more attractive it will appear under the microscope. After killing the insect, and not before, we may proceed to study it. Killing may best be accomplished by means of a killing bottle, failing this a hard nip on the body, between thumb and finger, will do, but it must be no half-hearted proceeding or the insect will be injured without being killed.