value of Insect Collections. 428 
The historical value that should attach to public 
collections, I cannot enlarge on, because it has hitherto 
been nearly entirely sacrificed by the unintelligent man- 
ner in which public collections of insects are formed and 
arranged. Certain specimens and certain labels will be 
found in a drawer, but what the connection between the 
two is or was cannot after a few years be ascertained. 
We could almost suppose, from the way in which they 
carry out their task, that the reflection that man is 
mortal has never occurred to those engaged in the for- 
mation of public collections of insects. 
But the greatest of the advantages that a public col- 
lection has over a private one, so far as the relation 
between cost and value is concerned, doubtless exists in 
the fact that the former might expect to receive, and 
doubtless with wise arrangements would receive, very 
extensive assistance from private individuals. Such 
assistance is already to some extent given, and if arrange- 
ments were made with the object of leaving to private 
individuals the work they prefer doing, and of fostering 
the interest such persons feel in the public collections, 
there would beyond doubt be a still greater advantage 
accruing from such assistance. Hence we may expect 
a very much more rapid increase than that we have 
mentioned as the minimum that can be accepted as 
satisfactory progress. So that, instead of the position 
we find at present, viz., that each public collection of 
insects is getting more and more hopelessly in arrear of 
the general progress, it might be fairly anticipated that 
a good public collection would keep fully abreast of the 
advance of knowledge. And this for the expenditure of 
such a sum as I have mentioned would be very good 
value indeed. 
In the considerations we have entered into the chief 
point kept in view has been the extension of general 
collections intended for the advancement of knowledge. 
The questions connected with the exhibition of speci- 
mens with a view to the diffusion of knowledge amongst 
the people have not been in any way alluded to, as they 
form a quite distinct subject. To enter here on a con- 
sideration of the number of persons in the community 
that would directly benefit by the existence of a good 
public collection would not be profitable, because it must 
be complicated by considerations as to the relations 
