71 



On Order and Method in forming Collections, with 

 especial reference to Insecta and Aves. 



By W. Parkinson Curtis, P.E.S. 



Read before the Zoological Section, April 25th, 1912. 

 (Revised and with additional notes.) 



HHHE methods I shall suggest are not perfect, but they are the 

 result of over 20 years' experience of collecting myself and 

 comparison with other Collectors' methods. These methods I 

 adopted because they appear to present the maximum of ease of 

 reference and of certainty, with the minimum expenditure of time 

 in looking for notes ; and the greatest possible and most numerous 

 results for the least amount of clerical labour. My brother and 

 I carry out these methods in practice. We find them not unduly 

 burdensome, and are beginning to get a mass of information 

 together of the highest utility. We also have the satisfaction of 

 knowing that when we leave this world of toil our successors and 

 assigns will have, for what they are worth, the records made at 

 the time as a result of our work and such part thereof as may be 

 of value will not be carried with us to the grave, but will be 

 available to add to the common sum of knowledge of mankind. 



Too many people in every sphere of life are too fond of acting 

 in the spirit of the selfish and bad question, " Why should we take 

 care of posterity, what has posterity done for us? " Real 

 progress in science can only be made if each and every worker 

 will work with the remembrance of the fact before his eyes that 

 in scientific research the longest life is all too short to be certain 

 of attaining definite result. The progress of the next generation 

 in science will be small or great according to the mass of informa- 

 tion that is at their disposal, and which must, to a very large 

 extent, have been compiled by the generation preceding them. 

 See, therefore, that any knowledge you acquire, any facts you 

 discover are committed to writing, and rendered available for 

 future reference. I maintain that you have no right to destroy 

 life in the formation of collections and then take with you to the 

 grave the whole of the information you acquired, and so compel 

 future generations to destroy more life to get at the same results 

 you arrived at and ought to have recorded. 



If you fail to record you are a useless encumbrance, regarded 

 scientifically, and you do not merit the name of a scientist. You 

 might as well collect postage stamps or old china as natural 

 history objects. Your collections without data and arrangement 

 will be mere collections of mummified remains which might as 

 well grace a dustheap for all the good they are. 



