66 THE SHORTER SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 



case^ will be given. Alcoves or galleries may be designated 

 by letters. If in storage, the location will be similarly 

 designated.^ 



Total number of specimens. — These columns will indi- 

 cate the total number of specimens of a given species^ 

 belonging to the museum. If customary for the institu- 

 tion to make exchanges a balance column may be added, 

 which will show the material on hand as well as that 

 exchanged. 



The necessary steps incident to the cataloguing of a 

 collection which has been received may now be outlined 

 as follows. 



a. Catalogued as an Accession. 



b. Placed in charge of a department. 



c. Catalogued in a Department Catalogue and given a depart- 

 ment number. 



d. Identified and labelled. This data then added to the de- 

 partment card. 



e. Placed on exhibition or in storage. 



f. Reference Catalogue filled out from data on department 

 card. 



The first three items should be attended to at once. A 

 considerable interval will often elapse, however, before 

 final disposition of the specimen is made. 



It would seem that only two general objections can be 

 urged against any system similar to the one proposed, 

 namely; (1) The plea that too much time will be occupied 

 in the preparation of such a catalogue, and (2) a certain 

 inherent condition which precludes the adoption of new 

 ideas. The only answer that need be given to the former 

 is that the space occupied by a specimen unworthy of be- 

 ing properly recorded, is mqre valuable than the specimen 

 itself, while to the latter no reply is needed. 



It is unnecessary and often inadvisable to at once reduce 



If the case is a large one and contains a quantity of specimens, it may be con- 

 venient to indicate the number of the shelf, etc. 



The practice of having separate department catalogues for the exhibition and 

 storage series, is to be criticized. Different species thus possess identical numbers, 

 and when it becomes necessary to transfer a specimen which has outlived its useful- 

 ness for exhibition purposes, to the storage collection, complications at once ensue. 



When it becomes desirable to include a collection in a guide book to the museum 

 or to issue a general catalogue of the specimens, the question involved is merely that 

 of selecting the data here classified. 



