6o Chapman, What are Type Specimens ? [ 



Vict. Nat. 

 Vol. XXIX. 



For the convenience of workers, type specimens should be 

 retained in the State or country where they occur.* For their sate 

 keeping they should be housed in a building which is reasonably 

 beyond risk of destruction by fire. Type specimens should be 

 incorporated in a collection which is not liable to suffer from 

 the adverse conditions of arbitrary re-arrangement or through 

 the ignorant handling of any person temporarily in charge, or 

 who does not possess for a type specimen an instinctive 

 reverence bred of knowledge and sympathy with the subject. 

 More than once have valuable type specimens in small local 

 museums in England been mislaid and lost through the lack 

 of knowledge on the part of those in charge ; and it is a favour- 

 able sign to see a general willingness of such museums to part 

 with actual types in exchange for good casts or reproductions, 

 in order that the originals may be safely installed in a large, 

 well-cared-for collection. 



In no case should a type specimen be removed from the 

 collection in order to satisfy the demand of an applicant far 

 removed from the place where the type is kept, for the risk 

 of sending the specimen by post, especially when fragile, is very 

 great. A photograph and description would probably satisfy all 

 requirements, especially if the photograph were taken from the 

 point of view desired by the applicant. 



When type specimens are known to be in the hands of 

 private workers, every means should be taken, on the death 

 of the owner, to secure a permanent place for them in a well- 

 established museum. Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, in his inter- 

 esting article on "A Suggestion as to the Care of Types,"t 

 proposes that museums should arrange for a fund to purchase 

 types from private owners, but not at such a price as to make 

 the description of new species too profitable. " with results 

 awful to contemplate." 



A good example, worthy to be followed in small countries, 

 but perhajis hardly i)ossible for Australia, where the chief cities 

 are so distantly situated, is that shown by the action 

 of the Museum Conference at Calcutta. J which formulated 

 an agreement " whereby all type specimens in the various 

 Indian museums are to be de])0sited in Calcutta. An excej^tion 

 will be made in the case of those specimens which, on account 

 of cUmatic dangers, would be safer in London." 



* In the case of collections of insects or other natural history specimens 

 which could only be described by a specialist, it might be advisable to 

 submit these under the safest conditions possible, but to stipulate for the 

 return of the types to the country in wliich they were found. See T. 1). 

 A. Cockerell, Science, 12th Aug., 1910, pp. 205, 206. 



j- Science. 12th Aug., 1910, p. 205. 



I See Museums Journal, vol. ix. (1909), P- 222. 



