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I may add to the first rule that I do not keep any private collection 

 whatever. I do not know whether you will agree with the above rules, 

 but after much consideration I believe them to be sound. 



Kow, it is on the question of private ownership that difficulties have 

 arisen, and I believe that some entomologists have permitted them- 

 selves entirely too great liberties. 



One of our station entomologists actually has advertisements run- 

 uing in the entomological and botanical journals, offering insects and 

 plants for sale. I think we ought to agree that no station official 

 should sell any part of his collections, unless, of course, the money is 

 turned in to the institution he is serving. Even so, it would not usually 

 be wise. It is quite impossible for a man to conduct a private business 

 and at the same time be a faithful station official, even admitting — 

 which I do not admit — his right to so dispose of a portion of his 

 material. 



1 believe a station official never ceases to be on duty, but that even 

 when on leave of absence he should lose no opportunity of serving, I 

 will not say the institution, but the science for which the institution 

 exists. 



While I have said this, I wish it to be understood I am concerned 

 with the motive rather than the deed. As a college professor, I have 

 considered my duties to extend far beyond the four walls of the college 

 building, and have, in fact, gone so far as to produce and edit an edu- 

 cational journal. This may appear to you a sin against the law that no 

 public official may conduct a private business; but there was just this 

 about it — it was not a private business, but a public one. The sole aim 

 of the publication was to further the interests of education, and I think 

 an inspection of its balance sheet would convince the most skeptical 

 that there were no financial ends in view. 



This last instance shows the value of our freedom, for it would be 

 hard indeed to frame laws which would prevent all improper enterprises 

 and yet not interfere with any proper ones. 



To return to the matter of collections. A very serious question is, 

 What may a man take away with him when he leaves an institution? 

 It is a great hardship to be severed from a collection on which one has 

 labored for many years, perhaps through no fault of one's own, and with 

 the knowledge that the next man will be quite unable to make proper 

 use of it. Yet I would say that the entomologist ought only to take a 

 set of duplicates, and that with the knowledge and consent of the 

 authorities. In one case known to me the entire collection of one order 

 of insects was removed, not a single named specimen being left. This 

 was done in perfect good faith, and no objection was made at the time. 

 I mention it merely to show how extreme are the differences of opinion 

 on this subject and how desirable it is to arrive at some mutual 

 understanding. 



It has lately been charged that specimens have been removed from 



