i62 NATURAL SCIENCE. m^,, 



been absorbed by Kew. So also with birds ; a large portion of the 

 private collections of a few years ago are now being concentrated in 

 the British and other museums. 



" What, then, will be the effect of this concentration of collec- 

 tions in public museums on the number of systematic working 

 entomologists other than the museum officials ? Under existing 

 circumstances, I am inclined to think the number will decrease. 

 The necessity at the present time of examining large series of 

 specimens of any species from as wide a range of localities as 

 possible, so that the variation and distribution of the species can 

 be traced, has increased the bulk of collections to an enormous 

 extent. In former times a pair or two of a species was considered 

 enough to represent it in a collection, but now we find that 40 or 50, 

 or even 100 specimens are necessary to show the stability or insta- 

 bility of a species, its range, and all the many points connected 

 with a satisfactory comprehension of its limits. All this vastly 

 increases the cost of forming and preserving new collections, and is 

 against the private collector undertaking the task, and the burden 

 of the work of determining and classifying will be more and more 

 thrown upon the museum officials. That the number of private 

 workers at systematic Entomology should decrease is distinctly to be 

 deplored, and in view of the tendency of collections to become 

 amassed in museums, it follows that it is chiefly to the arrangements 

 made in those museums that this evil is to be arrested. 



"As we all know, when once a specimen becomes the property 

 of the Trustees of the British Museum it must never pass out of 

 their possession. Nothing, then, can be seen out of the museum 

 hours, and entomologists who have their daily business to attend to 

 can only visit the museum at rare intervals. They do this to a great 

 extent now in order to determine specimens in their own collections ; 

 but when the latter are, from reasons already given, no longer made, 

 the subject will cease to be studied by them. I am inclined to think 

 this can be obviated to a great extent in a way that will greatly 

 benefit the museum and all concerned. There are, no doubt, a 

 considerable number of specimens, such as types, &c., which, on 

 account of their special value, should never leave the museum under 

 any circumstances ; they are too valuable to be placed in any risk 

 of loss. Besides these there is by far the greater part of the museum 

 collection which falls into a different category. I refer to specimens 

 which are either unnamed (a very large number), or, if named, are 

 not types, and which in their existing state do not possess any special 

 scientific value, not having had any work bestowed upon them. All 

 such specimens could, at a very slight risk, be entrusted to competent 

 specialists not officially connected with the museum to be named and 

 prepared either for incorporation into the museum series or assigned 

 to the named duplicates for future distribution to other institutions. 

 No doubt additional work would be necessary on the part of the 

 museum officials in preparing such series for examination ; but this 

 labour would be more than counterbalanced by the work performed 

 upon the specimens when they are returned named to the museum, 

 and ready for incorporation into the general collection. 



" The extent of the subject of Entomology is so vast that notjiing 

 but a systematic and continuous effort to amass collections, work them 

 out, and preserve them, can place us in a position to proceed safely 

 with the larger questions which follow the initial step of naming 

 species; and it will only be by the steady effort of our museum 



