60 THE SHORTER SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 



of Michigan Antiquities, and (c) Collections illustrating 

 the life of the Aztecs; all accessions in Anthropology of 

 (a) obtained by purchase, or at the expense of the museum 

 from the one fund, can be placed on salmon colored cards, 

 while similarly all accessions of (h) and (c) obtained 

 from the corresponding appropriations can be placed on 

 buff and blue cards, respectively. Thus at any time the 

 general condition of the various funds of the department 

 can be readily ascertained. Geographical Distribution 

 (e. g. nearctic, neotropical, etc.,) may be represented in a 

 similar manner. 



Placing numerical guide cards at intervals of every 

 hundred cards, will greatly facilitate finding any desired 

 accession number. In a catalogue where the width of 

 the tabs makes it possible to have an area at the right from 

 which no tabs project, it is convenient to place the numer- 

 ical tab as in Fig. 1. 



Inasmuch as the majority of accessions cover a quantity 

 of specimens, such a catalogue as the one described can be 

 easily maintained, and the advantages which result through 

 always having correctly classified data accessible are an 

 important item in the making up of reports. 



B. DEPARTMENT CATALOGUE 



The department catalogue has the cards arranged 

 numerically in chronological order and should contain 

 concise information concerning each specimen, or group 

 of specimens belonging to the same species which were 

 obtained at a definite time and place. In the smaller 

 museums the material may be grouped under departments 

 of Zoology, Botany, Palaeontology, etc., as represented 

 by the Accession Catalogue each with its separate depart- 

 ment catalogue. In the larger museums, however, it will 

 often be advisable for each department to have several 

 sub-departments or group catalogues having the rank of 

 departments. For example the department of Zoology 

 may maintain catalogues of Vertebrate and Invertebrate 

 Zoology, or of Pathological preparations. Neurological 

 specimens, etc., or on a systematic basis it may have a cat- 

 alogue for each phylum or branch of the animal and plant 



