72 REPORT OF NATION'AL MUSEUM, 1919. 



this Antillean field. These collections include the Sanderson Smith, 

 John Ford (Antillean section), C. W. Jolmson, Henry Prime, Theo- 

 dore Gill, and John H. Eedfield collections, as well as a series from 

 Maynard, Jarvis, Vendreys, and Brown. The Redfield collection was 

 almost wholly made up by full series of specimens acquired by him 

 from Poey, Arango, Gundlach, and Wright in Cuba; from C. B. 

 Adams and Chitty in Jamaica ; from Shuttleworth, Knox, and Riise 

 in Haiti and Santo Domingo, together with many contributions from 

 Bland, Cuming, Petit, and Swift. A most valuable element in the 

 collection is the series of Cuban rarities contributed by Dr. Carlos 

 de la Torre, of Havana, consisting of shells from early collectors, 

 together with cotypes of all his own species. The bulk of the Hen- 

 derson collection, however, consists of the results of twelve or thirteen 

 expeditions to the Antilles made by himself and assistants for the sole 

 purpose of visiting regions unexplored or little known to the nat- 

 uralist. These expeditions have yielded very large series for study 

 purposes, as well as a wealth of type material." 



I have dwelt the more upon this magnificent acquisition as it 

 points a moral. VHij is this collection unsurpassed, why is it of 

 such great scientific importance? Surely not only or even chiefly 

 because of its vast size. The all-important factor in its formation 

 is that it was made for a purpose and according to a plan. It would 

 seem self-evident that such motives should always guide in the accu- 

 mulation of material for a biologic museum. Unfortunately, such 

 is not the case with regard to the zoological and botanical collec- 

 tions of the United States National Museum. The bulk of the ma- 

 terial which is deposited in it is the result of uncoordinated efforts 

 of other departments without regard to its own needs and its own 

 organic and harmonious development. The biological branch of the 

 National Museum is dependent to a great extent on the activities of 

 various bureaus belonging to many Government departments, such 

 as the Bureau of Fisheries, the Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau 

 of Entomology, Biological Survey, Public Health Service, etc., for 

 whose collections the National Museum by law is made the deposi- 

 tory. Naturally these branches of the Government pursue their own 

 aims in their own way. The utilitarian questions and interests for 

 which they were created and which it is their principal duty to 

 study and promote m.ust of necessity engage their energies. It is 

 therefore unavoidable that the material received from these sources 

 must be more or less one-sided. I bear here grateful testimony to 

 the fact that the men at the head of these various bureaus are not 

 only aw'are of this fact, but that they are constantly endeavoring 

 as far as lies in their power to remedy this defect. They realize, as 

 possibly no one else does, how necessary it is that the collections, 

 upon the study of which they must rely for the fundamental facts 



