343 



Tbe value of such au exhibit collection depends very much on con- 

 spicuity, and this can best be obtained by the liberal use of diagrams 

 and enlarged drawings, as the majority of the most interesting species 

 and those which most concern man are almost microscopic in size. 

 Such an exhibit collection will miss its mark and object whenever it ex- 

 ceeds these limits, and by too much detail seeks to interest and instruct 

 the specialist or in other ways trenches on the fuuction of the study 

 collection. As the Museum, in this department, will, in accordance 

 with statute (Revised Statures, sec. 5586), receive a great deal of its best 

 material through the Department of Agriculture, one of the chief aims 

 of this national collection should be to reciprocate, not only by preserv- 

 ing all systematic material and thus aiding said Department of Agri- 

 culture in necessary determinations, but by giving particular attention 

 to the biological side of the collection. This I have endeavored to do, 

 and the collections illustrating the biology of North American insects 

 are the largest in the world. 



DRAWERS AND CASES. 



The character of the drawers and cabinets employed in such a national 

 collection is important; for upon it the future preservation of specimens 

 very greatly depends. Knowing it to be Professor Goode's desire to 

 adapt, as far as possible, the drawers used in all departments to the 

 unit size which he has adopted for the Museum, some effort was made 

 in this direction ; but the adaptation, while possible for the exhibit col- 

 lection, was found impracticable, or at least very undesirable, for the 

 study collection. Hence, after carefully studying, in person, the differ- 

 ent forms and patterns used for entomological collections both in this 

 country- and Europe, whether by private individuals or public institu- 

 tions, I have adopted a drawer and cabinet essentially after the pat- 

 tern of those used in the British (South Kensington) Museum, but best 

 adapted in size to our own requirements or conception. The drawers 

 are square, with an outside measurement of 18 inches and an outside 

 depth of 3 inches. The sides and back have a thickness of three-eighths 

 of an inch, while the front is five-eighths of an inch thick. The pieces 

 are firmly dove-tailed together, the front being clean and the dove- 

 tailing blind. The bottom is of three-ply cross-grained veneer, run into 

 a groove at the sides, leaving a clear inside depth of 2^ inches to the 

 frame of the cover. The bottoms are lined in all but forty of the drawers 

 with first quality cork one-fourth of an inch thick. At a distance of 

 one fourth of an inch from the sides and back and three-eighths of an 

 inch from the front there is an inside box of one-eighth inch whitewood 

 closely fitted, and held in place by blocks between it and the outer box. 

 There is thus between the inner and outer box a clear space all round, 

 in which insecticides or disinfectants can be placed to keep out Museum 

 pests, and making it impossible for such to get into the inner box con- 

 taining the specimens without first passing through this poison chamber. 



