ent lot of tools, or if the work were done differently in preparing marine 

 shells for the cabinet. He assured us that the same apparatus and 

 method of procedure would answer equally as well for marine shells. 

 In some large species it was necessary to use a syringe to remove all 

 of the animal matter from the spire. We were told that this was 

 necessary to keep the museum insects from ruining the appearance of the 

 collection. 



The Professor now showed us a new cabinet which he had just 

 received, and in which he had arranged some of his recent acquisitions. 

 This cabinet was about five feet high, and inside the drawers measured a 



little more than two feet 

 square, and were two 

 inches in depth. The 

 specimens were all neat- 

 ly arranged in pasteboard 

 trays covered with black 

 glazed paper. He said 

 that he formerly used 

 white trays, but found 

 that they were too easily 

 soiled. The trays were 



A tray of specimens, illustrating the method of labeling. \i&\ an inch deep and 



were made in interchangeable sizes, as follows : 2x3, 3x3, 4x3, 4x6, 

 and 6x6 inches. At the upper part of the drawer were several trays 

 1x3 inches, turned upside down, upon which was pasted the name of the 

 genus to which the shells belonged. The labels were written with india 

 ink, and were fastened to the tray by simply gluing the upper edge, as 

 shown in the cut above. This method prevented the specimens from 

 rolling on the label and hiding it. 



The labels were made of manila pasteboard, and each one bore the 

 name of the species, its locality, from whom received, the date, a con- 

 secutive number, and a few notes relative to the specimens or the locality. 

 The number on the label referred to a book called an accession catalogue, 

 in which the Professor had entered each species, giving all possible in- 

 formation regarding it, such as exact locality, kind of shore, whether 

 rocky, sandy, or muddy, and if a fresh-water shell the size and kind of 

 pond or stream, whether sandy, rocky, reedy, etc. The date and tem- 

 perature were also carefully recorded, besides brief mention of the habits 

 or peculiarities of the animals. In addition to the accession book, he also 

 kept a card catalogue which showed at a glance how many species of a 

 given genus were in the collection. All of this seemed very desirable, 



58 



