154 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



recommend either the cheap pamphlet cases of Manilla paper, 

 sold by stationers everywhere, or else the more convenient 

 wooden box devised by Dr. Bowditch, and which has the 

 advantage that when it is opened the titles of the pamphlets 

 face you. 



[Since this lecture was delivered I have used another form 

 of pamphlet box, which seems preferable to those mentioned. 

 It is a box made of whitewood, covered with marbled paper ; 

 it measures 4x11x7^ inches; it has a common drawer- 

 handle on the back, and is open at the front. 1 Such boxes are 

 placed on shelves, like volumes ; they present a neat appearance, 

 and are easily pulled out or replaced. It would be desirable to 

 have a card-holder on the back to indicate the contents upon 

 cards, which can be changed as convenient.] 



Every professional biologist ought to have a card-catalogue, 

 serving the double purpose of a bibliography and a catalogue 

 of his library. I can probably lay my suggestions before you 

 most rapidly by describing my own system, which, with your 

 permission, I will now do. This system has worked satisfac- 

 torily, but I can by no means claim for it that it is, like 

 Pangloss' world, the best of all possible systems. The library 

 is arranged in several groups, and the pamphlets in each group 

 are arranged alphabetically by authors, and under each author 

 by Mark's chronological system. First the pamphlets are sep- 

 arated into two primary divisions, those which are not cata- 

 logued and those which are catalogued. Those pamphlets 

 which do not immediately concern my own lines of study are 

 not catalogued, but are simply classified in Bowditch boxes by 

 subjects. Thus I have a box for biographical notices, for path- 

 ology, botany, systematic entomology, microscopical methods, 

 etc., and hundreds of pamphlets are kept readily accessible. 

 The remaining pamphlets are all catalogued on cards of the 

 larger standard library size, made of cardboard, not paper. 

 Were I to start over again, I should unhesitatingly use the 

 smaller card, 12.5x5.0 cm. (about 5x2 inches), of stiff paper. 



1 Pamphlet boxes as described, but without handles, may be obtained of the 

 Library Bureau in Boston. In fastening on the handle, fairly large screws should 

 be used, which may be cut off so as not to project inside and tear the pamphlets. 



