80 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
Wilkes.* One of the consequences may be noted. 
Couthouy, who was rather in advance of his time as to 
methods of study, and an artist of ability, made many 
extremely fine colored drawings of living mollusks, full 
notes of their habits, location, etc., so far as observed, 
and preserved the specimens in jars of alcohol. These 
were identified by numbers in his notes and the same 
number stamped on tinfoil was placed in the jar, so that 
the connection between the notes and the specimens 
should be preserved. Unfortunately the tinfoil contained 
some lead as an impurity, and this, gradually oxidizing, 
whitened the specimens in the jars. This was observed 
by the reverend custodian, who traced the evil to its 
source, and with the best intentions removed the slips 
of tinfoil without replacing them by any other means of 
identification. ‘The slips were carefully preserved in 
another glass jar. 
This operation destroyed all means of correlation 
between notes and specimens, and when Couthouy 
returned he was so horrified at the destruction of his 
careful work that he abandoned in disgust his project 
of making a report on the collections. Years afterward 
when the material had been transferred to the National 
Museum, this biographer was shown the jar containing 
the hundreds of rejected tinfoil slips, and the story related 
to him by Professor Baird himself. 
In the report which was finally made on the shells 
by Dr. A. A. Gould, with the aid of Couthouy’s notes 
and drawings, the inevitable result followed; namely, 
that the value of the work as a contribution to geograph- 
27 This was in 1841, under the direction of the National Institute. 
In 1842 a competent staff was appointed, but a little too late for 
complete safety of the collections. 
