s is easy, fast and effective.
It permits one to set large numbers of insects almost in an assembly
line fashion, working from the far end of the board towards oneself,
laying the tape over the wings, blowing or gently dragging the wings
into position, pinning down the tape, and proceeding to the next insect.

* If you get a small fish alive, then there is absolutely no way to
set it more perfectly than by dropping it alive into rather strong
acetic acid. This is not generally practical for say, a large salmon,
but for anything of manageable size, it leaves the gills, jaws, and
fins fully and stiffly extended. Strong formaldehyde has a similar
effect, but not as good. Immediately the specimen is stiff and dead (a
few seconds at most) remove it from the acid and rinse it gently with
clean, cold water, then transfer it to a solution of ammonium
carbonate, lime water, or similarly gentle alkaline material, to
neutralise the acid before proceeding with whatever means of
preparation you intended. See also the means I describe for preventing
acid damage.

* If you happen to use hypochlorite or any other compound that
releases chlorine, and you then wish to remove the residues, first
rinse your specimens clean as well as is convenient, then soak them in
very weak peroxide for a while. Hypochlorite and peroxide react with
each other to produce free oxygen (harmless) and chloride (also
harmless in any plausible concentrations). The effect is to neutralise
any harmful or irritating residues or smell of chlorine.

* In at least one place I was surprised to see that Browne speaks of
pinning insects exactly through the middle. Nowadays this is not
widely done because one risks damaging structures on the median line
of the specimen. Instead the common convention is to pin specimens
somewhat to the right of the median, so that anything damaged on the
right can generally be seen undamaged on the left. When setting
beetles or the like, this usually means pinning them through the right
elytron. Commonly one then may set the specimen with the left elytron
and wing spread. Not all beetles will permit this of course, as many
flightless species have their elytra fastened down, and some, such as
many Scarabaeidae, flip their flying wings out pen-knife-like without
noticeably raising the elytra.

* No doubt the non-toxic soaps and so on that Browne describes do work
as advertised, but for keeping pests of dried material at bay, for
prote