CARD CATALOGUES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS. 103 
absolutely preclude any notes on the fauna of Sumatra, as, 
for example, a work on “The Insects of Germany.” Sub- 
scribers to any considerable portion of the bibliography 
would have received these references for 80 centimes (8d.), 
and any person, whether a subscriber or not, could receive 
the information for 3 fr. 10 (2s. 6d.). Surely no comment is 
mecessary to prove the value of the work and the extreme 
cheapness of the service. 
There is no doubt that when the admirable qualities of the 
catalogue become more widely known in England, more and 
more zoologists will subscribe to it and provide themselves 
with the cards bearing on the subjects of special value to them. 
For subscribers receiving from 1000 to 1500 cards per 
annum the charge is 2°25 franes (about two shillings) for 
white cards and 1°85 franes for thin brown cards per hundred, 
whilst for those undertaking to receive the whole set the 
prices are as low as 1°30 francs and 90 centimes per hundred 
respectively. 
I should recommend the Society to subscribe to a duplicate 
series of Field’s ecards relating to their special objects, one 
being arranged systematically, the other according to author. 
On this latter might be advantageously indicated those 
libraries in Edinburgh in which the publications are to be 
founc. 
Finally, may I say a few words on the use of cards in 
systematic catalogues, a point which seems to me of special 
impoitance in view of the object which I understand this 
Society has set before itself of compiling an account of the 
natural history of the Forth and its basin? I would suggest 
that 1 card catalogue should be kept of all the species 
recorded from the area in question, each species having its 
own zard, behind which could be ranged slips giving 
refereaces to literature, notes of occurrence, habits, ete. 
The scheme might be carried out in some such way as 
that shown in the accompanying specimen. Each genus has 
a blue card, with a projecting tab at the left hand one-third 
of its breadth, on which the generic name is written or 
printed in clear bold letters. It will be convenient to add 
the name of the creator of the genus, its date of description, 
and perhaps the name of the type species. 
