6 



INTKODUCTIOISr. 



and ou March g, 1896, the presence of type material for 3,603 animal 

 species was reported. 



Since that time the writer, with the assistance of Messrs. Dall, Stanton, 

 T. W. Vaughan, Ralph Arnold, R. S. Bassler, and Miss M. W. Moodey, 

 has kept the catalogue up to date. The preparation of the office catalogue 

 for the printer was done by Mrs. M. S. F. Jouy and Miss lyUcj'' Graves. 



Type specimens have come to the U. S. National Museum in an ever- 

 increasing quantit}^ and in the purchase of the E. O. Ulrich collection 

 not less than 1,600 species were added during the past four ^-ears. 

 The R. D. L,acoe collection furnished about 200 species, chiefly insects. 

 This catalogue records not less than 11,490 type specimens in the 

 National Museum, representing about 6,100 species of fossil inverte- 

 brates distributed through the various sections of the department, as 

 follows: 



Species 

 (about). 



Paleozoic invertebrates . . . . 

 Mesozoic invertebrates . . . . 



Cenozoic invertebrates 



Fossil insects 



Total 



Holotypes 



Paratypes and cotypes 



Plesiotypes and plastotypes 



Total 



6, 100 



The type specimens are largely from North America, but there is also 

 material from the West Indies, from Brazil, Chile, Peru, New South 

 Wales, and Arctic Siberia. 



It can be stated with considerable certainty that the larger American 

 museums have carefully guarded the safe-keeping of fossil type speci- 

 mens. As long ago as 1853 lyouis Agassiz " wrote of the importance 

 of type specimens. Here he reviews a ' ' Catalogue of the Cabinet of 

 Natural History of the State of New York " and says: 



The n'j^ents of the University deserve great credit for directing the publication of 

 this catalogue. Nothing is better adapted to secure permanently the interest for 

 public collections and to contribute to their increase than the circulation of such 

 catalogues. We only regret that no more direct reference is made to the individual 

 specimens described and figured in the Natural Hi.story of New York. The impor- 

 tance of preserving .such records to favor the researches in case of doubts, u])t)n the 

 identity of newly discovered species, can not be overrated, and we would particularly 

 call the attention of all directors of nmseums to this jioint. The chief value of many 

 of the museums of Europe arises from the circumstance that they contain the original 

 specimens described by the naturalists who have brought our science to its ])re.sent 

 condition. 



a American Journal of Science, XVI, pp. 283-284. 



