Americana 



VOL lY. 



BROOKLYN, OCTOBER, 1888. 



NO. 7. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB 

 OF THE A. A. A. S. 



[President's Address.] 



(Continued from page 112.] 



S(ime arguments and suggestions against individual collections have 

 been made in "The Entoniolc)gi>l " for 1887, and in "Psyche"' for June 

 1888 there is an approving citation of such an expression. 



1 do not at all aj^ree with such ideas. The advantages of individual 

 collections for scientific purposes are immense, and the best work ever 

 done has been done in private collections, even in countries witli manv 

 and large Museum collections. A Museum cannot allow its specimens to 

 be handled as an individual can — it cannot consent to any destruction of 

 any except really duplicate material, even to clear up questions ofscientific 

 value— it must limit the times of work. 



An individual collection is always at the service of the owner for any 

 purpose : he can mutilate or destroy his specimens ad libitum. He can 

 remount, denude, dissect or do anything else he chooses. Best of all, his 

 collection is always handy. He can go to it at any hour of die dav or 

 night to solve a doubt— to verify an idea or to test a theory. Museum 

 collections in this country too are not so numerous that any arguments 

 made for the London collectors could be given much weight here. 



I would say therefore, make individual collections by all means and 

 make them as extensive as time and scientific work will permit. Preferablv 

 make a special collection and try and complete that, even at the expense 

 of the other groups. 



And let me suggest too that in making such a collection the date of 

 capture, the exact locality and some indication as to habit be given. This, 



