Mr. Otto Meske's Collection of Lepidoptera. 217 



net, they are expertly withdrawn therefrom in a glass bottle, 

 in which they are killed by chloroform dropped in a cotton- 

 packed tube leading through the cork, then turned out on 

 the palm of the hand, and pinned with the utmost care ; 

 all this, usually, without the slightest injury to the delicate 

 layers of scales fringing their wings. Examples such as 

 these, are alone worthy of serving the purpose of correct 

 description or faithful delineation. 



The systematic arrangement displayed in these cases, is 

 the result, in the aggregate, of many months of labor, and 

 of such labor as is only given when one's heart is in his 

 work. You all know that a collection in any branch of 

 natural history can never be made complete, for with new 

 explorations, new forms are continually revealed, which de- 

 mand recognition and place ; yet none but the naturalist can 

 know how much is required in the effort to maintain a collec- 

 tion fully up to the level of advancement in any department 

 of science. In entomology, we are at the present time, in 

 this country, sadly afflicted with what one of our European 

 friends, the venerable Dr. Boisduval, of Paris, has aptly 

 characterised as a genosomania — an inordinate passion for 

 the manufacture of new genera, " which threatens, unless 

 arrested, to spread over your [our] country, until hardly 

 more than a single species will remain for each genus." 

 Even in the adoption of such proposed new genera as are 

 not objectionable, serious labor is involved in the necessary 

 relabeling. Then again, the inexorable claim of priority is 

 continually coming before us, demanding that old, familiar, 

 time-honored names shall be discarded in favor of new ones, 

 dug up from some forgotten pamphlet, like Hubner's Ten- 

 tamen, or other obscure resting place beneath the mold of 

 the past century. Ever welcome as are new species to the 

 ardent entomologist, the delight with which he receives a 

 valuable contribution to his cabinet, is often tempered by a 

 momentary pang, as he realizes the hours of labor required 



Trans. viii.~\ 28 



