NOTES FROM THE SARAWAK MUSEUM. 259 



The fascias are white, tinged with cchreous, instead of silvery, 

 and fascia No. 4 on the forewing is very broad, fusing- with the 

 white litura which in the male occurs at the base of the second 

 median interspace. Expanse 48 mm. Matang, 3,000 feet. 

 June 1897. 



On the System of Cataloguing Adopted in the 

 Sarawak Museum 



In the year 1874 an American, Mr. Melvill Dewey, invented 

 and published a system for classifying and cataloguing scienti- 

 fic and other literature by means of employing decimal numbers, 

 this system is known as the Dewey Decimal System. Curiously 

 enough it has received but a small amount of attention in Eng- 

 land and her dependencies, a most astonishing fact when one 

 compares its perfect method and simplicity with the systems 

 now in vogue in the majority of large home and colonial libra- 

 ries. Mr. Dewey is in short the Bertillon of scientific catalogu- 

 ing, less fortunate than his distinguished prototype, inasmuch 

 as he has still to receive a wide-spread recognition. 



The system consists of dividing the subjects, on which 

 literature has been produced, into groups; to each group a 

 number is assigned : each group is subdivided and each sub- 

 division is characterised by a decimal number, following the 

 group number. Thus, under such a number as 600 would be 

 found all works dealing with Geography ; a subdivision of this, 

 Europe, would have the number 600.1 ; Asia, 600.2, etc. The 

 countries making up these main divisions would again have a 

 number—England 600.11, Scotland 600.12, Ireland 600.13, 

 etc., etc., whilst still greater subdivision can be provided for by 

 the addition of another decimal, thus: — Bedfordshire 600.11.1. 

 Naturally enough countless modifications of this system have 

 been suggested and tried. 



On contemplating the somewhat chaotic system, or rather, 

 lack of system, employed in cataloguing the zoological speci- 

 mens in the Sarawak Museum, it seemed to me advisable to re- 

 catalogue the collections by means of a modification of the 

 Dewey Decimal System. Each class of animals was marked with 

 a letter : — Mammals, A. Birds, B. Reptiles, C. Amphibia, D. 

 Fishes, E. Each family of these classes was numbered in order 



