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MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



for this purpose by the Museum is so appropriate and conven- 

 ient that it has already been borrowed for public and private 

 collections, ours being considered by all as the best model. 



The first object was to secure the whole collection against 

 noxious and destructive insects. Next to this was a still more 

 important work. The greater part of the collection was stored 

 in separate boxes containing insects of different countries ; but 

 the Orders were often mixed, and it was necessary to ascertain 

 the special locality to which every insect belonged and to label 

 it accordingly. The value of every collection depends in a great 

 degree upon the accuracy with which localities are given ; and 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology this has great impor- 

 tance in view of the peculiar and comprehensive scheme laid out 

 by Professor Agassiz for its organization. The task was a la- 

 borious one, requiring much time and care in its details ; a 

 label was to be provided for every pinned insect, and it was the 

 more difficult since it was impossible to have printed labels for 

 every kind of insect, and even when printed they must be ar- 

 ranged and cut in a certain form and manner, while at the 

 same time the different orders, families, and if possible the 

 genera also, were to be separated. The work was delayed still 

 more by the slow delivery of the new boxes. By the kind and ef- 

 ficient help of Messrs. Ed. Burgess and B. P. Mann the arrange- 

 ment of the North American Lepidoptera and Coleoptera was 

 completed at the end of August. It may also be said that the 

 collection is now as far as possible secure against destructive in- 

 sects or injury of any kind, as well as against errors concerning 

 localities. I should add, in order to justify the expenditure for 

 this object, that all attempts to make a cheaper kind of boxes 

 than those used by us, proof against noxious insects by chemical 

 preparations, have failed. In a Museum intending to preserve 

 a standard collection permanently intact, they would be wholly 

 ineffectual. The best made and most perfectly fitting boxes, 

 and therefore the most expensive, are in the end the cheapest, 

 considered with reference to the future development of the 

 Museum. 



In the further arrangement, the order of Lepidoptera was first 

 considered, that order forming the greater part of the whole 

 collection. The collection of European Lepidoptera was arranged 



