494 EMBRYOLOGY OF THE TURTLE. Part III. 
have been corrected long ago, and I should have been too late with the results 
And it 
should be remembered, that a well-marked blank in a library may be as sug- 
of my investigations upon this subject, now published in this volume. 
gestive as a well-filled shelf, and may induce the young naturalist to take up 
some branch of study which has been neglected. For my own part, I well 
recollect, that, on my first visit to the University of Heidelberg,’ at the age 
of nineteen, on asking the librarian to show me all that had been published 
upon the subject of Fishes, he pointed me to a meagre shelf, and on examining 
its contents I found that many important facts, with which my youthful rambles 
and my early love of Natural History had made me familiar, were unknown to 
But the librarian, as 
naturalists. “And is this all?” was my repeated inquiry. 
well as the professor of Zodlogy, assured me that these volumes contained all 
After- 
wards, I mentioned to Professor Leuckart the facts which observation had taught 
that was then known to the scientific world on the subject of Fishes. 
me with respect to the seasons of spawning, the mode of growth, the geograph- 
ical distribution, and the habits of the Fishes of Switzerland; and, when I found 
that they were new and interesting to him, I no longer doubted as to the field 
in which to commence my labors. That blank in the well-ordered library taught 
me more, as to the scientific path which I should choose, than shelves crowded 
with volumes could have done. I mention this anecdote merely to show the 
importance of systematic arrangement in our libraries, in order that our young 
students may perceive at once in what departments their investigations are most 
needed, Otherwise, much time may be lost by toiling in already well-ploughed 
fields, and valuable facts may be left unrecorded. 
For the same reason I would urge upon the consideration of those interested 
in the progress of science in America the value to the student of well-stored 
museums, and especially of local collections containmg series of specimens of every 
species of animals, plants, minerals, rocks, and fossils found in the vicinity of 
every school throughout the country, with precise indications respecting their ori- 
in2 With reference to this last topic, too much cannot be said of the impor- 
ne Pp 
1 This was in the spring of the year 1826, two 
years before the publication of the first volume of the 
great “Histoire naturelle des Poissons” by Cuvier 
and Valenciennes. 
2 Tt is a great mistake to suppose that large muse- 
ums are necessary for the study of Natural History, 
and that show specimens from distant countries add 
I delib- 
erately assert, that there is not a school-house in the 
much to the interest of a scientific collection. 
United States, in the immediate vicinity of which it 
would not be easy to make, in a few years, a collec- 
tion of native specimens suflicient to illustrate the 
fundamental principles of any branch of Natural His- 
tory. Nay, it is not too much to add, that such collec- 
tions would contribute greatly to the advancement of 
science, if simple catalogues of their contents were 
published from time to time. I am satisfied, from my 
own experience, that every such collection could, in 
