228 Forty-third Report on the State Museum. 



" Rexolmd, That the monograph of Director Hall on Dictyospongidse 

 be published by the museum as Bulletin No«l. 

 " The resolution was accordingly adopted." 



At the time the preceding resolution was passed the greater 

 part of the drawings for the illustration of these fossils had been 

 made, and the remainder were soon afterwards completed. These 

 will require at least twenty-five quarto plates for their proper 

 illustration. To lithograph these plates would occupy the entire 

 time of our lithographer for one year, and now that he has other 

 si^jailar work upon his hands it will require two years to complete 

 these plates. 



I have several times applied to the chairman of the Committee on 

 the State Museum for permission to place these plates in the hands 

 of the lithographer, but such permission has not been granted, and 

 at this time, after nearly five years have elapsed, the work remains 

 in essentially the same condition as at that time, without any 

 power or authority on my part to go forward. 



In the meantime other explorers, stimulated by the preliminary 

 publications in the New York State Museum Reports, have 

 entered the field, and may soon have the means of anticipating 

 our publication and reaping the credit which belongs to us by 

 right of prior investigation and preliminary publication. 



As in all similar cases, publication stimulates inquiry and 

 investigation, and there are now numerous observers and col- 

 lectors in the field, and there are investigators who feel that they 

 should not be compelled to wait longer for our publication. If we 

 do not publish or care to publish what has been brought so far 

 toward completion, it is our duty to announce this to the public 

 that naturalists may no longer feel any restraint in going forward 

 with their work and publication. 



If the work can not be published by the State Museum, I 

 would recommend that it be turned over to some institution 

 which will publish it ; and I have no doubt there are several 

 institutions in the United States which will gladly undertake the 

 work. 



In order to keep up some degree of parity in the progress of 

 discovery among these fossils, I have, especially during the past 

 two years, undertaken, at my own personal expense, to provide 

 for the collecting of Dictyospongidae in the southern counties of 

 New York and adjacent parts of Pennsylvania. 



