IMPORTAXCE OF SYSTEM ATICS 17 



on systematic work" without also calling upon the principal consumers 

 of systematic work to recognize their own obligation to support syste- 

 matics. This is not to deny the need for expanding museum staffs, par- 

 ticularly in our National Museum, to which by law must be sent the 

 collections made in the course of government financed investigations. 

 Such collections are being received, especially from recent investigations 

 in the south Pacific islands, at a rate far beyond the capacity of the staff 

 to keep up with them. But there is little evidence that anyone outside the 

 museum realizes that there is an implied obligation to study these collec- 

 tions as they accumulate. 



It is instructive, at this point, to remember that Scripps Institution 

 of Oceanography was founded by a systematist (who specialized in 

 ascidians), that one of the great systematic classics was written by 

 Fridtjof Nansen as a doctoral dissertation, that Darwin spent eight 

 years monographing barnacles to solidify his reputation (systematics 

 was in high esteem in those days, and no biologist who had not done 

 some sound taxonomy was considered worth his salt), that K. Moebius, 

 V. Hensen and C. J. G. Petersen all cut their teeth on systematic prob- 

 lems. It is well to remember that another ascidian specialist, William 

 Herdman, founded the Port Erin station on the Isle of Man, and 

 what was said of the continuation of his policies by his successor: "In 

 these days when a newcomer considers himself entitled not only to 

 ignore the traditions of his office, but even to break them down, John- 

 stone's decision to follow and develop the policy of Herdman at Port 

 Erin showed that his judgment was sound even when in conflict with 

 his private inclinations." (Cole, 1934) 



Even more instructive than such examples is the example of broad- 

 ening horizons in systematic biology set by the Allan Hancock Founda- 

 tion in the relatively short period that it has been in existence. Not 

 only has the Foundation accumulated tremendous and important col- 

 lections and a remarkable working library in the manner of a traditional 

 museum, and provided for the publication of studies upon these col- 

 lections, including the importation of specialists from other parts of the 

 world to prepare particular monographs, it has also embarked on a 

 program of ecological survey of the nearby sea bottom. Already this 

 work has excited the interest of ecologists in other parts of the world 

 since its preliminary results suggest that ecological conditions on the 

 sea bottom may not be as uniform in various parts of the world as 

 postulated by some European workers. Such work would have been 

 impossible when the Foundation was originally established because not 



