XXXli, '21] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 181 



tralize lo be near the types, to facilitate study and reduce travel. 

 Practically such an arrangement cannot exist, as the world, or. 

 for that matter, our country, has local or sectional influence-, 

 if this term be permitted, which cannot be ignored and which 

 should not be disregarded, as these influences, or centers, largely 

 have been the means of developing the present state of our 

 knowledge of the sciences. 



Reduced to practicalities the U. S. Xatimial Museum pos- 

 s< sses no endowment and is supported by government appropri- 

 ation. The size of this appropriation governs the amount of 

 care and attention, as well as housing, the collections in tin- 

 cafe of the Museum receive. It is virtually impossible to bind 

 Congress to set aside or guarantee public funds in perpetuity 

 for the care and preservation of these collections. We all agree 

 the appropriations are at present grossly inadequate and should 

 be greatly increased, and as individuals we should work toward 

 that end. It should be realized, however, that other institutions, 

 some' of longer, equally productive activity, possess endowments 

 not subject to legislative whims, and whose collections are of 

 very great extent, extremely rich in types, in many groups of 

 zoology as rich or richer, occasionally far richer, than the Na- 

 tional Museum. These organizations have claims for consid- 

 eration as type depositories which seem to be disregarded, or 

 at least given little consideration, in the report as presented. 



Collections of types, all will agree, should be housed in fire- 

 proof buildings, in modern cases, guarded as far as possible 

 from damage of all sort, and open to examination under rea- 

 sonable regulations to safeguard the material, yet not hamper 

 the student who needs to consult it. Types should be preserved 

 intact, and dismembering to place them in Riker mounts should 

 not only be discouraged but prohibited. Yet, to a recent date. 

 this destructive policy has been followed with certain insert 

 type material at the National Museum. Here a matter of per- 

 sonal opinion as to what constitutes "preservation" is involved, 

 and many students would say exactly the reverse is the result. 



The National Museum can well be made a national repositorv 

 of valuable and important collections, but it does not follow 

 that the legitimate claims of other great institutions in tin- 

 United States devoted to biological research, and which possess 



