38 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



never changing their expression and 

 never attempting to break away, simply 

 because they did not dare. Since that 

 time I have seen hundreds of people 

 in the same position, as were those 

 prisoners; always moving" in the same 

 way, never expanding or trying to 

 make a break for the freedom which 

 nature offers them, because they are 

 afraid to leave the beaten track of 

 their "prison" grounds. 



These are the people who need help. 

 To aid them is one purpose of the Ma- 

 plewood Museum of Natural Science. 

 Many visitors have come to the mus- 



there are some twelve or fourteen 

 branches of biology each of which is 

 well represented at the museum. The 

 key to a good collection of any nature 

 lies in the one who has made it. Noth- 

 ing must be allowed within the cases 

 unless absolutely authentic in its 

 smallest details. If a specimen is puz- 

 zling to the student of natural science 

 he must simply keep at it, and sooner 

 or later he will begin to see things 

 through a different pair of eyes, he will 

 be able to see the why and wherefore 

 and to unravel the tangled threads 

 which jealously bind the mysteries that 



PART OF THE INCUBATOR ROOM AT THE MAPLEWOOD BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 



eum with an expression which clearly 

 reads, "Well I might as well get it 

 over with." But how quickly it 

 changes when they find out how many 

 things there are at their very door that 

 they have never even dreamed of. 



One does not have to collect "bugs" 

 to be a naturalist, but this seems to be 

 the popular idea of all nature study. 

 Why should we devote our entire at- 

 tention to one family of the insect king- 

 dom ? I started with the butterflies 

 and each succeeding year as my in- 

 terest grew stronger, a new branch was 

 taken up, so that at the present time 



surround the solution of each and 

 every problem in science. 



To me, the solving of these nature 

 problems has always been the most 

 fascinating part of my scientific work. 

 To know that you have worked them 

 out unaided is in itself sufficient reward 

 for the time and labor so spent. 



During the past four years I have 

 made careful observations of the 

 museum's visitors in an effort to dis- 

 cover what was of greatest interest to 

 them. This center of interest proved 

 to be in two or three particular pre- 

 parations which show the complete 



