GAUD CATALOGUE SYSTEM. WAITE. 
217 
The CARD-CATALOGUE SYSTEM adapted to 
Museum Requirements. 
By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Zoologist. 
In a thoroughly up-to-date Museum there must always bo going 
on an active exchange of specimens with kindred institutions in 
other countries. To catalogue the collections in such an establish- 
ment may in itself be a matter of some difficulty. I f one is content 
merely to enter the names and particulars of current acquisitions 
in a book form register, and rule out, or otherwise mark, entries 
representing specimens sent away, nothing could be simpler. Such 
a register, however, cannot bo kept in systematic order : a great 
disadvantage when dealing with Natural History specimens, and 
hours may bo spent in tracking the source of any particular object. 
In dealing with the largo number of specimens under my care 
at the Museum, namely, Mammals, Reptiles, Fishes, and all 
Osteological preparations, I had the inadequacy of the usual form 
of register for ordinary working purposes, forcibly brought home 
to me; for my own convenience, therefore, I duplicated the record 
of current donations, etc., according to tho plan below referred to. 
Eighteen months ago the Curator instructed um to prepare a 
catalogue of the duplicate Mammals available for exchange, and 
for this purpose I was provided with an additional register. I 
then explained what system I had instituted, and the Curator 
heartily approving, permission was accorded me to officially adopt 
it in the Institution, as referred to in his Annual Report for 1808.* 
The Curator’s remarks were based on a six months’ trial, during 
which time a comparatively small catalogue only had been prepared. 
All the collections in tho various sections previously mentioned 
are being catalogued on this plan, and so far the work has occupied 
an assistant nearly the whole of the eighteen months indicated. 
Many important libraries are now catalogued by tho “card” 
system, and it is simply an adaptation of this to Museum require- 
ments that I desire to bring into notice. Once a book is placed 
in a library it usually remains there, and if worn out is merely 
replaced, the substituted book bearing the reference number of the 
discarded one; changes occur only by interpolating new volumes. 
With a museum collection the case is different, for, in addition to 
the new material, specimens are constantly being removed by 
exchange, and old examples can never he actually replaced, for 
unlike a book, each has an individuality of its own, depending on 
locality, age, sox, season, or other condition. 
* Aust. Mus. Ann. Report, 1898 (1899), p. 0, 
