1897.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 507 



collections, a disadvantage which, in November, 1865, resulted in the 

 appointment of a committee " to devise," in the language of the reso- 

 lution, " methods for advancing the prosperity and efficiency of the 

 Academy by the erection of a building of a size suitable to contain 

 the collections." 



In the intervals of cruises, Dr. Ruschenberger was introducing 

 improvements in the administration of affairs, and to his energy 

 and devotion is due the ultimate success of the Committee on 

 Building then appointed. Some administrative reforms were indeed 

 required, for although the Academy had been brought to the 

 distinguished position it then held by the voluntary labors of those 

 interested in the advancement of knowledge, the absence of 

 responsibility was productive of serious disadvantages. Up to this 

 time no one connected with the institution, except the janitor, had 

 received continuous compensation for service rendered, although 

 appropriations were made from time to time for special work as oc- 

 casion required. The services of an Assistant Librarian were se- 

 cured in January, 1862, at the munificent compensation of two dol- 

 lars a week, and an assistant to the Curators was appointed some time 

 after. Dr. Leidy, then, as during the rest of his life, Chairman of 

 the Curators, had been heard to declare that if the Academy were 

 in possession of everything it had ever owned, a building twice the 

 size of the one then occupied would be required to house the collec- 

 tions. The losses were due partly to the destructive action of time, 

 partly to bad museum methods, and partly, it is to be feared, to a 

 liberal interpretation of the law of meum and tuum. The enthusi- 

 astic young naturalists of the period were allowed to rearrange and 

 disarrange the collections as they pleased, each according to his own 

 ideas of classification. Infested birds were carried to the cellar by 

 the hundred and baked in a hot oven until they became as brittle 

 as punk. The insects, especially, were entirely neglected because of 

 the activity of the recently founded American Entomological So- 

 ciety and the serious disagreement then existing between Thomas B. 

 Wilson and John L. LeConte. A valuable collection of insects was 

 being rapidly reduced to dust, and an enthusiastic young ento- 

 mologist of the time proposed transferring the few remaining good 

 butterflies bodily to his own collection, so that they might be pre- 

 served from destruction. It was not the Curators or the members 

 of the Entomological Committee, but the Assistant Librarian who 

 prevented the carrying out of his virtuous intention. As for the 



