172 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



objects immediately around me. Besides, I had engaged to deliver 

 a course of lectures in Boston, and in the attempt to go in the same 

 time through that work and the examination, anatomical as well as 

 zoological, of every species of animal I could obtain from the market 

 and from some excursions on the beaches in the vicinity, I was 

 brought into such a state of excitement that I at last was taken sick 

 so severely that I have not moved from my bed for these last three 

 weeks. I am now recovering gradually, and hope soon to be up again, 

 and able to go into the country; when I shall have the pleasure of 

 seeing you in the course of the summer at the time which will be 

 most convenient to you. 



As you have been kind enough to offer me your assistance in 

 making collections, I take now the liberty to suggest some points 

 in which you could greatly aid me. In the Zoological department 

 my researches bear always upon the anatomical and embryological 

 side of all questions, and so I prefer to have a great number of speci- 

 mens of the most common species in all their ages, than to have few 

 specimens of many rare species. I will mention as an example, that 

 I should collect as many as twenty and more specimens of all your 

 salamanders, frogs, toads, and have, besides, the tadpoles in all 

 their different states, the whole preserved in spirit. So with other 

 reptiles; among fishes, I should prefer those neglected small species 

 of Cyprinidae and other river fishes; and to preserve them for future 

 anatomical investigation, I use to inject spirit through the anus 

 and mouth into the intestines, and in larger specimens also into the 

 abdominal cavity through a cut in the wall of that cavity. Even 

 birds and mammalia, especially the smaller species, I preserve in 

 the same manner in spirit, as often as I can secure specimens which 

 are not badly shot. It is time to ascertain through anatomical 

 examination what is the value of all those genera which have been 

 established among birds, and this cannot be done except with such 

 a collection. Even in a Zoological point of view, it is impossible to 

 preserve bats better than in spirits, which must be strong, but not 

 so much so as to occasion a shrinking of the soft parts. Of course, 

 worms, mollusks, and all parasites cannot be preserved otherwise. 

 Now, if you have time to secure for me in this way some of the animals 

 of your country, I should be most obliged, and, of course, not only 

 repay you all expenses it will be necessary to make for this, but 



