Decembes 15, 1905.] 



SCIENCE, 



793 



most eminent scientific men of Great Britain. 

 Only one of the number declared the view of 

 my correspondent to be in his judgment cor- 

 rect. The other nineteen utterly reprobated 

 his propositions, declaring them to be in their 

 judgment wholly untenable. Sixteen of the 

 leading scientific men on the continent of 

 Europe replied, all of them rejecting the 

 propositions as unheard of, and contrary to 

 all experience and usage. 



It appears from the eighty replies received 

 by the writer that only four, or five per cent., 

 of those whom he addressed, three of these 

 being Americans, had ever heard of the propo- 

 sitions laid down by his correspondent, and 

 the rest all reprobated the doctrine. 



What then is the attitude which should be 

 taken by a museum toward the expert who is 

 requested to w»rk up scientific material in the 

 custody of an institution? That he has the 

 right to endeavor to enrich his own collections, 

 if he happens to be a collector, at the expense 

 of the collections submitted to him for study, 

 I think will be almost universally disallowed. 

 That he should, however, be recompensed for 

 his labors, if he desires to be recompensed in 

 any other way than by the pleasure and honor 

 he may derive from being permitted to write 

 upon the material entrusted to him, will be 

 conceded. In case an expert desires a finan- 

 cial return for his service in the way of a 

 honorarium, to grant this in accordance with 

 the ability of the institution seems to the 

 writer to be eminently proper. Furthermore, 

 if he desires to retain for his own use and for 

 aid in future study duplicate material where 

 such duplicate material exists, it is the opin- 

 ion of the writer that he should be allowed to 

 do so, and in fact it may be said that it is the 

 almost universal custom to allow experts to 

 retain a reasonable amount of duplicate speci- 

 mens from collections where such duplicates 

 exist. But all types of species and genera 

 based upon collections which are submitted to 

 experts should lie invariably returned to the 

 owner of the collection, unless a previous ar- 

 rangement to the contrary has been made. 

 And this is particularly true in the case of 

 the collections of great museums, which are 



foiuided for the purpose of recording and pre- 

 serving for future generations the results of 

 scientific research. The writer has had con- 

 siderable experience in this matter and has 

 never felt himself at liberty, when called upon 

 to study and examine collections other than 

 his own, to do more than to suggest to those 

 who have had the kindness to submit them to 

 him for examination that he would be pleased 

 in case duplicates existed in the collection to 

 be allowed to retain of this duplicate material 

 sufficient to enable him in coming time to 

 v/ork to greater advantage. 



The museums of the country should be 

 cautioned against dealing with any individual 

 who holds the view to which the writer has 

 called attention, and as the head of one of 

 the greater museums of America the writer 

 desires to say that the authorities of this in- 

 stitution will never consent to allow any por- 

 tions of the collections in their custody to 

 pass out of their keeping into the hands of 

 those who may wish to study them without 

 having, preliminary to such act, reached a 

 clear and distinct understanding to the effect 

 that all types shall be returned to the museum, 

 and that only duplicate material shall be al- 

 lowed to remain in the possession of the expert, 

 the amount of such duplicate material which 

 is to be granted to be determined by the au- 

 thorities of the museum themselves. This is 

 in the judgment of the writer coi'rect usage. 

 He knows,, however, that there are a dozen or 

 more men of more or less reputation in scien- 

 tific circles who hold the opposite view. He 

 believes, however, that they are in a hopeless 

 minority, and that their opinion in the matter 

 is unsound from the standpoint both of sci- 

 ence and of good morals. 



„ ,. W. J. Holland. 



Carnegie Museum, 



Pittsburg, Pa. 



a lecture experiment in hydraulics. 

 To THE Editor of Science: The phenome- 

 non of the diminution of pressure in a con- 

 tracted portion of a water pipe, as exemplified 

 by the so-called jet pump and by the Venturi 

 water meter, always seems paradoxical to the 

 student in physics, and it is important, there- 



