LEE BARKER WALTON 51 



are supposed to be kept, he obtains the data which he 

 wishes.^ 



Consequently the following suggestions in respect to 

 the cataloguing (often spoken of as 'registering' or 're- 

 cording') of specimens have been brought together 

 primarily with a view toward facilitating the maintenance 

 of such records in museums of Natural History, although 

 it is hoped that they may prove of practical advantage in 

 connection with other institutions of a similar nature. 

 The paper was outlined and partially written while en- 

 gaged in the rearrangement of certain collections in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York, dur- 

 ing the summer of 1901. The completion, however, 

 although a brief review was published in the Ohio Natu- 

 ralist for 1904, has been delayed in order to make further 

 inquiries concerning the systems of cataloguing used in 

 various museums, as well as for the purpose of profiting 

 by a more extended practical application of the method. 

 This latter result has been accomplished in the cataloguing 

 of specimens during the last three years for a foundation 

 of a small museum at Kenyon College. It may be noted 

 that very few changes from the plan first proposed have 

 been rendered necessary. 



The literature relating to the subject of cataloguing 

 museum specimens is chiefly conspicuous by its absence, 

 notwithstanding the mass of information in regard to 

 museums and museum administration which has been 

 brought together in the Museum Journal and a few other 

 periodicals devoted to the interests of such institutions, 

 and in the papers by Meyer :00-03, Gratacap :02-03, 

 Murray :04, etc. Meyer (p. 419) briefly outlines the 

 method used in the Field Columbian Museum, while 

 Murray (v. 1, p. 264) somewhat naively suggests that "As 



In a vigorous article by Bather (How may Museums best retard the Advance 

 of Science, Annual Report of the Museums Association, p. 90-105, 1896) some of 

 the difficulties of locating museum specimens are described as follows. "Many years 

 ago I journeyed to Strassburg on purpose to examine certain specimens that had been 

 described by Mr. de Loriol. The various curators whom I met at the Museum as- 

 sisted me very willingly throughout three days searching for these specimens, but 

 they could not be found, and I went on my way sorrowing. Arrived at Freiburg, I 

 mentioned the fact to my friend, Professor Steinmann, who suggested that possibly 

 the specimens might have been overlooked as being in the Cartier collection. At 

 considerable expense and inconvenience I therefore returned to Strassburg, and sure 

 enough, there were the specimens carefully obscured." 



