120 Recent Literature. [ February, 
own studios are certainly not getting salaries for it! It is to the 
advantage of the academy to utilize, if possible, all these now 
scattered ways and means, nd is it not a reflection on human 
nature that suggestions to this end should be looked upon as 
‘“‘Macchiavellian schemes for selfish ends,” or attempts to obtain 
control of the academy’s collections? We want no better evidence 
than such language, to show that something more important 
than money is wanting here. The need of something else was 
very evident during our Centennial, when enormous collections, 
which might have been had for the asking, were allowed to be 
taken to Washington under our very eyes. 
We close with an allusion to the opinion expressed in this part 
of the paper, that “the professors would be the only experts who 
would have free access to the collections.’ There is no provision 
to this effect expressed or implied in the by-laws or the proposed 
alteration of them. The by-laws provide for the reverse. The 
privileges now enjoyed by members of the academy would not 
be restricted in the least, but would rather be increased through 
the additions to the collections which would follow. The new 
by-law simply protects the new material which may hereafter be 
obtained through the exertions of a professor for purposes of re- 
search, from distribution through the museum, before it is used, 
and specifies who shall use it first. This is simple justice, and it 
will ever remain the condition on which the academy’s collections 
can be increased in any important degree. Expectations of ob- 
taining collections in any other way are illusive. By new material 
is not meant material new to the museum, but that which is new 
to science. At present, this entire subject, which is the working 
basis of the institution, is thoroughly misunderstood. It is not 
well to fear the granting of these privileges, for it is a question of 
their being enjoyed by a few persons or by none at all. No two 
persons can use the same material at the same time, nor can its 
first use be enjoyed by more than one person. 
:0: 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Nores on New Enctanp Isopopa.—In this paper we have a 
list, with notes on the distribution, of forty-three species of | 
Isopoda found on the coast of New England (including one which 
has not yet been observed south of Labrador). Janira spinosa 
and Leptochela rapax are the only new species described. of- 
these forty-three species, ten have been found only south of Cape _ 
Cod ; fifteen are common to both sides, and eighteen appear only _ 
north of the cape, and eleven occur on the European shores. — 
Of these eleven, Tanais vittatus has been found south of the © 
1 Notes on New England Isopoda. By OSCAR HARGER. Proceedings of the United — 
States National Museum, 1879, pp. 157-165. : i 
