74 KEPORT OF NATIONAL, MUSEUM, 1919. 



principle, other and more important requirements are made on th© 

 systematic zoologists and botanists. The whole proposition is so self- 

 evident that to be admitted it only needs to be propounded. Never- 

 theless, it is a deplorable fact that the Museum has no adequate mean9 

 at its command to meet such an essential factor in the proper dis- 

 charge of its functions. 



The establishment of the Walter Rathbone Bacon Scholarship of 

 $50,000 provided for in the will of Mrs. Virginia Purdy Bacon is to 

 be hailed as a first step in the right direction. It is designated a trav- 

 eling scholarship under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for the study of the fauna of countries other than the United States 

 of America. There can be no doubt that it will eventually help 

 remedying the unsymmetrical development of the Museum collections 

 pointed out above. On the other hand, it would greatly benefit the 

 work in the Museum, both by improving the collections and by in- 

 creasing the usefulness of the staff, if numerous smaller amounts were 

 available each year for travel. It is of great importance for the 

 proper development of the exhibition series that the men engaged 

 in its jrrowth and care be enabled from time to time to visit other 

 similar institutions. The United States National Museum has to 

 keep abreast of the best efforts in this line. There is great competi- 

 tion between the various establishments everywhere to make the 

 collections as illuminating and as attractive to the visiting public as 

 possible, but only by seeing what others are doing in the same field 

 is it possible to keep up with the progress. It is also necessary for 

 members of the scientific staff in the course of their work to consult 

 material in other museums, especially type specimens which, as a rule, 

 are not allowed to leave the institutions to which they belong. 



The question of type specimens is one of extreme importance to 

 every working taxonomist. Modern botanical and zoological nomen- 

 clature depends to an ever-increasing degree on these specimens upon 

 which the first name of a newly discovered organism were bestowed. 

 So much depends on the correct interpretation of these priceless 

 specimens — priceless because they can not be replaced when lost or 

 destroyed — ^that it is often necessary for the scientific worker to 

 travel long distances in order to be able to inspect them personally. 

 It is manifestly a great disadvantage that type specimens are scat- 

 tered through hundreds of museums, some of them even in private 

 collections exposed to dangers of many kinds. The ideal condition 

 would undoubtedly be to have one single depository where the 

 scientific student could go sure of finding aU the existing type ma- 

 terial relating to his work gathered together in one place. I need 

 not emphasize that such an idea is Utopian at the present time, but 

 it would seem possible to have the great majority of types assembled 

 in a few of the largest institutions which would have ample facilities 



