6070 



Entomological Society. 



he sent you may have sold for. Mr. Stevens, though a poor man, out of health and 

 with children to provide for, made a great self-sacrifice to gratify his enthusiasm as an 

 entomologist, that he might send you many rare insects, fondly hoping that he 

 was conferring a present and future benefit upon the entomologists of his native 

 country. 



The sale of the collection in Paris was most disreputable, and I fear that you may 

 apply the tu quoque to yourselves. 



You have done that which may have a most injurious influence upon the welfare 

 of other Societies. Who would be at the trouble and expense of sending some rare 

 animal to the Gardens of the Zoological Society if there is a possibility that the object 

 of his care may, by some freak of the Council, be sent to the hammer? You have 

 done that which I believe to be neither lawful nor right. You are only life-tenants of 

 the property which you have sold. Part of it had probably been so cherished through 

 life by its possessor that he left it to your care to prevent its dispersion. 



I am in total ignorance as to the promoters of this scheme, and therefore mean no 

 personal aifrout to any one. 



I am yours very truly, 



W. C. Hewitson. 



Reply to the preceding hy Dr. Gray. 



British Museum, 



Dear Mr. Hewitson, April 20, 1858. 



In reply to your note to me, without date, received this morning, 

 I hasten to inform you that 1 have had nothing personally to do with the proceeding, 

 and was not even on the Council when the subject was discussed. The resolution 

 under which the sale took place was regularly conducted, and expressed, in a legal 

 manner, the unanimous wish of the Society, and I believe that no wrong has been 

 done to any one, the Society having selected and retained all the specimens which 

 have been specially described from its collection. It is the general mistake of Societies 

 of the kind to spread their exertions over too large a field, aiming at everything, and 

 then finding that they cannot do any part well. Collections of insects, to be well 

 kept, require one or more special curators, which the revenues of the Society will not 

 afford to pay; the consequence is that the collections are not arranged so as to be 

 useful for consultation, and get into a bad state ; the library does not increase and is 

 not catalogued, and the Secretary, however willing and industrious, is over-worked. 

 The Society will therefore, I believe, derive great benefit from what it has done, as its 

 officers will be able to give their exclusive attention to its meetings, publications and 

 library, and make them more available to the members, and thus advantageous to the 

 improvement of the Science. 



I consider that the Society has every right to do as they have done, and every one 

 of any experience in England or France must be fully aware that Societies of the kind 

 cannot be considered as permanent institutions, and that their property must be liable 

 to be distributed, like that of a private individual, though perhaps not as frequently. 

 T do not suppose that you think that you or your executors are precluded from selling 

 or otherwise parting with the specimens which have been presented to you by different 

 collectors, and that their families should have any right to the proceeds of such 

 sale. 



