PREFATORY NOTE. 



The first volume of the Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum is brought to its con- 

 clusion with the publication of Dr. William H. Ashmead's exceedingly important 

 Monograph upon the Chalcidoidea, the descriptive portion of which is based upon 

 the collections made in South America by Mr. Herbert H. Smith, now the property 

 of the Carnegie Museum. No less valuable from a scientific standpoint than the 

 concluding paper of the series embodied in this volume are the papers of Mr. 

 Hatcher on Paleontology and the Osteological Monograph of Dr. Shufeldt. 



It is with a feeling of satisfaction that the Editor contemplates the issue in final 

 form of this volume, which marks the initiation in the city of Pittsburgh of an 

 enterprise which is destined to give to it as the years go by an enduring reputation 

 as a center of scientific culture. To the fame of Pittsburgh as the seat of some 

 of the most Cyclopean industries of the age is being added reputation as a seat of 

 learning. Under the cloud of smoke, which attests the industry of her inhabitants, 

 and is the sign of her material prosperity, live men who find their pleasure in ex- 

 ploring the wonders of the material universe, and the record of their discoveries 

 and researches will from year to year be found in the Annals and the Memoirs of 

 the gj-eat Museum which the more than princely generosity of Mr. Andrew Car- 

 negie has called into being. Here are being brought together from all over the 

 globe materials for study illustrating the different arts and sciences, and upon these 

 collections is destined to be built up an extensive literature, which will add to the 

 sum of human knowledge. Among the first fruits of this movement the following 

 pages are found, and they are submitted to the attentive regard of students through- 

 out the world in the confident belief that those who are capable of correctly esti- 

 mating the value of such pubHcations will find in them both pleasure and profit. 



W. J. Holland. 



The Carnegie Museum, 

 March 31, 1904. 



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