comments on a few arbitrarily chosen
points, in no particular sequence:

* Browne seems to have worked before hydrogen peroxide became
generally available, or possibly before its bleachng powers were
recognised. For bleaching most biological specimens, especially
bones and the like, hydrogen peroxide is in every way better, less
offensive, less corrosive, and less damaging to tissues, than
hypochlorite. Soaking even badly yellowed teeth in say, a "five
volumes" concentration (about 1% to 2%) of peroxide for a few days or
weeks, whitens them beautifully without damage or rotting of tissues.
You might find that other peroxide compounds, such as perborates,
work better still, but I have not yet had occasion to use them.
Other methods of bleaching only are worth trying when the specimens
happen to contain a particular pigment that does not respond well
to peroxide bleaching. Some such pigments are better bleached with
other chemicals, such as sulphites or hypochlorites.

* It takes some trawling through the book to discover that by "mites"
in insect collections, Browne probably means "booklice", i.e.
Psocoptera.

* Earwigs (Dermaptera) are not Hemiptera, as Browne classed them.
Dermaptera and Hemiptera are not even closely related. The error is an
interesting one however. It presumably arose from a nineteenth-century
confusion of the hemelytra of the Hemiptera, with the short tegmina,
the covering fore-wings of the Dermaptera, that protect their hind
wings when they are not in flight. Hemelytra of Hemiptera are not
really half-wings anyway, but protective fore-wings armoured for only
about half their length. The two orders do not even resemble each other
in appearance, anatomy, habits or ecological significance.

* Browne uses a few terms not easily to be found in every dictionary
nowadays. Dowlas is (was) a coarse kind of linen, but probably Browne
referred to a strong calico in imitation of such linen. For "filister"
read "fillister"; according to more or less contemporary dictionaries,
it is a misspelling. It turns out to be a type of rabbet plane used in
making window frames and similar structures.

* For setting insects on a setting board, I was slightly surprised at
Browne's use of "braces" and the like. Nowadays everyone I know uses
strips of smooth, non-sticky, translucent paper or similar material for
the purpose, and I had not realised that any other methods had been
used in the past. The use of such strip