182 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



In addition to these pinned specimens, the collection contains some 

 nineteen large boxes of alcoholic material, chiefly of the adolescent states 

 of insects, comprising some 2,850 vials, in many cases several species 

 being contained in a single vial. The early states of the minuter in- 

 sects are mounted in balsam on slides (1 by 3 inches), of which the col- 

 lection contains upward of 3,000, most of the slides holding the contents 

 of three cover glasses. The collection contains a large number of un- 

 described species in all orders. 



The mounted material is contained for the most part in double-folding 

 boxes, about 32 by 22 by 8 centimeters, made into book form and care- 

 fully lined on both sides with cork and covered with paper. A certain 

 proportion of the boxes are less than 7 centimeters wide and are lined 

 only on one side. There are also two cabinets, one with sixteen large 

 glass-covered drawers, and another (still at my residence for want of 

 room) of sixty glass-covered drawers. The specimens are all duly classi- 

 fied and labeled, and in excellent order and preservation. The labels 

 include notes as to locality and food habit, and are also in many cases 

 numbered to correspond to detailed notes as to adolescent states and 

 habits. The collection was begun twenty-five years ago, and represents 

 my continuous collectings since, including my own types and many of 

 other authors received in exchange. It embraces few exotic species, 

 and is more particularly rich in biological material, containing more 

 blown and alcoholic larvae and pupae in connection with their imagos 

 than perhaps any other collection of North American insects. Includ- 

 ing the unarranged and alcoholic material not connected with the pinned 

 specimens, there are over 20,000 species in the collection. 



With this new departure and the permanent establishment of the de- 

 partment it may not be inappropriate to state what should be the aims 

 and objects of such a department, or at least what I conceive they should 

 be and shall strive for. Collections of objects intelligently brought to- 

 gether are necessarily educational in influence; but a national collection 

 of insects, on account of the very great number of species and the ex- 

 ceeding minuteness and the fragility of the great majority of the species, 

 as compared with other animals, must needs have a dual character, and 

 should consist of (I) the cabinet or study collection proper and (2) the 

 exhibit collection. 



The ideal cabinet collection of a National Museum should represent, 

 as completely as possible, the insect fauna of the country, properly 

 classified and determined. It can, necessarily, have little interest for 

 the public at large and should be consecrated to the use of the special- 

 ist and to the advancement of the science of entomology. For this 

 purpose it should be most carefully guarded and conserved in the best- 

 made drawers and cases and secured alike from light and the too con- 

 stant handling of the mere curious. It should constitute a study col- 

 lection to which workers are drawn for unpublished facts and for 

 comparisons and determinations. It should be so well conserved and 



