121 



Report of the Library and Cabinet Committee. 



The Eeport of the Library and Cabinet Committee is in many- 

 respects very satisfactory. You have heard that the Library is in 

 good condition, and that considerable additions have been made to it 

 during the past year, principally through the very liberal presentations 

 that have been made to us. It is also very satisfactory to find that 

 we are in a condition to make a grant of money out of our surplus 

 for the purpose of binding some of the more important works, which, 

 in an unbound state, are much less available for purposes of study or 

 reference : for these purposes I am happy to find the Members of 

 the Society are availing themselves of the Library to a much greater 

 extent than heretofore. 



The next item in the report has excited my own, and I feel assured 

 it has also your astonishment and regret : to me it appeai-s quite 

 unaccountable. This is the passage I allude to : — " No addition has 

 been made to any of the collections during the past year." Had no 

 part of our collections been in a state of arrangement I could well 

 have understood it, but this cannot be said of the order Lepidoptera ; 

 and it has been well known, as regards our collection of Coleoptera, 

 that that order was in process of arrangement in accordance with 

 Mr. Waterhouse's Catalogue. In my opinion, if the Entomological 

 Society determines upon having a collection of British Insects, that 

 collection should stand unrivalled for completeness ; whereas it is a 

 lamentable fact, that, as regards the collection of Coleoptera, a tyro 

 of two years' standing would be ashamed of it ; and I fear the Lepi- 

 doptera, with the exception of a few rarities scattered amongst 

 its ranks, will not stand a comparison with the private collection 

 of any Member of this Society. Surely this cannot be generally 

 known. I cannot but believe that every Member of this Society 

 will hold the opinion which I have stated to be my own, — that 

 the best, the most complete collection of British insects, ought to 

 be found in the Museum of the Entomological Society of London. 

 Is that tlft opinion of my brother Members ? If so, let cabinets be 

 prepared for the reception of all the Orders of insects, and let us try 

 earnestly, and with an unflinching determination, to attain an end so 

 desirable. For my own part, I will supply every species of aculeate 

 113'^menoptera of which I possess more than a single example ; if 

 others will join in a similar manner in the endeavour to attain so 

 desirable an end, I feel assured that, twelvemonths hence, we shall 

 have made immense progress in the work. 



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