(ft ) 



occasion with marked discourtesy, and in the end he 

 gave up both his work for the Zoological Record and his 

 visits to the Natural History Museum. (It is a satis- 

 faction to add that my own experience has been very 

 different, and that in consulting the National Collec- 

 tions, as I have frequently done in recent years, 1 have 

 received the fullest help and encouragement from those 

 in charge.) From 1869 onwards collections from all 

 over the world kept pouring in, and my father was con- 

 stantly engaged in drawing or describing the species 

 sent to him. His draughtsmanship was extremely 

 accurate and at the same time artistic- he received 

 (about 1880 or soon afterwards) the loan of an excellent 

 binocular microscope from the Royal Society, and as this 

 was specially constructed for his use it was of the 

 greatest service to him. Very few of those who sent 

 him specimens had themselves any desire to keep a 

 collection of spiders, and so my father's own collection 

 grew rapidly. He soon made it a rule to decline to 

 work out any collections unless he were allowed to 

 retain the type specimens of any new species which he 

 described. The rule was made partly in self-defence, 

 but mainly in the interests of science. He had quickly 

 learned from experience how much carelessness as to 

 the preservation of types was generally to be expected, 

 and how much inconvenience the loss of them entailed, 

 and it was very rarely indeed that the slightest objection 

 was made to his rule. His practice may be held to have 



