282 Repoht .S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



museums closer together, assist them in their work, would prevent 

 overlapping and duplicating of work, and therefore assist in the more 

 useful and profitable results for the not inconsiderable sums of money 

 granted yearly' by the different Governments. 



The benefit that would accrue to the smaller museums would be 

 very great. The smaller institutions are utterly unable to maintain 

 large staffs and large libraries of expensive books of reference. If the 

 above outlined schemes were put in operation they could continually 

 send part of their material to the larger institutions for correct naming' 

 and classification. We would get uniformity in our work. Much 

 material could be supplied to them from the abundance in larger 

 stocks, and, above all, the specialists in different subjects would get 

 material to work out from all parts of South Africa, which would be 

 an invaluable aid to their own knowledge and study, and to science in 

 general. 



This central organisation, supported or rather being part of all the 

 institutions in South Africa, would have much more influence with the 

 various Governments or with the United Government. Recommenda- 

 tions made by the representatives of all museums in respect to more 

 adequate grants, the appointments of new specialists in different 

 bi-anches at present not represented on our staffs could not be disre- 

 garded by the powers that be. Every one will readily admit that 

 South Afiica is very insufficiently and very inaccurately explored on 

 scientific zoological lines. This united and therefore powerful and 

 influential organisation would bring home to the central Government 

 the necessity of a systematic zoological survey of South Africa. As 

 by far the greater part of the type specimens from which the 

 original descriptions liave been made are in the British, Leyden, 

 Berlin, Washington, Stockholm and other Tuuseums, and are therefore 

 hopelessly lost to South Africa, such sur\ey should visit the exact 

 localities from wliere the original t3pes were secui-ed and described 

 and secure the co- or prototypes for our more important South African 

 institutions. After all, if we feel and acknowledge the necessity of 

 not playing second fiddle any longer to non-South African institutions, 

 in scientific results we ought to combine and press these truths home 

 to the authorities. 



Tliere are yet valuable discoveries to be made ; if we see that the 

 general trend of systematic zook)gy is to subdivide so many species in 

 sulispecies and geograjthical races, why should not this work be done 

 here and by us, and at any i-ate the types of these subspecies and geo- 

 graphical races be kept in South Africa and alongside the co-types of 

 those species of which the original types are hoi>eless]y lost to us. Far 

 from it that I should advocate the indiscriminate formation of sub- 

 species on the colour of one tail feather or the difference in size of a 

 couple of millimetres from the original type ; but surely if European 

 scientists have a right to found new subspecies on material supplied to 

 them from South Africa, that right, that duty is ours. We have long 

 enougli played the role of showmen in South Africa : we have long 

 enough Ijeen posed in our institutions as tolerated ajipendices of a 



