2 
WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
WARD’S 
||alnral ^cicncc BuIIttin. 
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY 
AT 
WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE ESTABLISHMENT. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS : 
BAKER, A. B.— Invertebrate Zochog’.v, Oology. 
HORN A DAY, WM. T.— Zoology, Taxidermy and Col- 
lecting. 
HOVYELL, EDWIN E. — Geology, Mineralogy and 
Palaeontology. 
LUCAS, FREDERIC A. — Vert. Zoology, Osteology. 
PRESTON, H. L.— Mineralogy and Oonchology. 
WARD, HENRY A. — Miscellaneous. 
WARD, HENRY L.— Zoology. 
WHEELER, W. M. — Miscellaneous. 
EDITORIAL NOTES. 
We see that our last editorial closed 
with the remark that neither of the reasons 
which had delayed this issue of the Bul- 
letin should hinder the prompt appear- 
ance of the present one. W e said what we 
intended. But the fact is, that while our 
work among these interesting and seduct- 
ive forms of nature is such as to constant- 
ly inspire us with a wisli to talk of them 
in print, our work itself is so thoroughly 
engrossing and so fatiguing bodily that we 
have at the close of the day little spirit to 
sit down to pen and paper. Professor tells 
us that our Bulletin is a fraud. And 
we begin to think so ourselves. We surely 
shall no longer promise the Bulletin at 
any regular times or definite date. We 
stick to it as an idea, and mean to get it 
out when we can. Under these circum- 
stances we dare not ask for new subscrib- 
ers, unless they are willing to be treated 
as we propose for the old ones ; that is, to 
give them, sooner or later, four Bulletins 
for their fifty cents. ' 
Since our last issue, the establishment 
has had its usual number of changes. Mr. 
Webster has left us to set up shop for 
himself at Washington, and his place has 
been filled bv Mr. Tollin, a taxidermist 
skilled in European methods, from the 
Royal Museum at Stockholm. Mr. Akely 
has returned from a short trial of life in a 
New York taxidermist shop. Mr. Lucas, 
whom (with Hornaday) we still affectionate- 
ly call our own, is back here for a few days 
to take a wife, whose attention, we believe, 
he first attracted by the beautiful work 
which he got up at our shops. 
Mr. Baker is still in the field. After a 
summer’s campaign in Kansas, where he 
collected and sent us a fine series of cre- 
taceous fossils — fishes and saurians, he 
went to New Mexico, where he is now 
sending us reptiles and rodents pickled in 
alcohol. Henry L. (Ward) has returned 
from California covered with glory and sea- 
lion hair. His adventures among these 
huge sea monsters at Point Reyes and 
neighborhood on the Pacific coast are won- 
derful to listen to, as recorded by him. 
Fortunately for him he is able to illustrate 
what he says, by the skins and skeletons 
of no less than ten of these great brutes, 
some of which are fifteen feet in length and 
weigh nearly or quite a ton. His next col- 
lecting field will be the Carribean. Mr. 
Wm. M. Wheeler, a young naturalist of 
merit from Milwaukee, has just joined our 
goodly ranks. We'liereby intimate to him 
our intention to give him the editing of 
the next Bulletin ! 
Mr. Howell is back from Europe and 
has brought over two hundred boxes of 
minerals, rocks and fossils, which he and 
Preston, Me Cormick and Thonan are bring- 
ing out to view. 
Professor has just returned from Texas, 
where he took Robert to help him in some 
work at the new university at Austin. 
Now he is giving us all his parting in- 
structions before he starts (March 1st) for 
Europe and the east coast of Africa. He 
promises us large acquisitions in the way 
of Rhinoceroses, Hippopotami and Giraffes 
from Zanzibar. Lemurs from Madagascar, 
and Ostriches from Cape of Good Hope. 
We shall see. We, as editors, only bespeak 
traveling notes for these columns. 
The Government as a Publishing House. 
The tone of an editorial article under the 
above caption in a July number of Science,, 
which has but recently fallen under our notice, 
is to us at once a surprise and a disappointment. 
We are truely surprised that that journal of all 
others, should be the first to attack the govern- 
ment for its arduous labors and heavy expendi- 
tures in behalf of American science, both. prac- 
tical and technical. Is this the gratitude of the 
scientific public to the most liberal of all govern- 
ments for having made the scientific reports of 
our most eminent investigators and explorers free 
as air to all deserving applicants? 
It was to have been expected that a govern- 
ment which is assailed at every point, good, bad 
and indifferent, would soon be attacked from 
some quarter for publishing such valuable scien- 
tific books and giving them away. It was not to 
be expected, however, that the attack would be 
led by Science, which has undertaken to repre- 
sent scientific progress in this country, and which 
derives a large share of its support from the class 
of persons whose interest in scientific subjects 
was warmed into life by the free distribution of 
scientific information. 
If the government shall not have its own pub- 
lishing house, why not? Why not publish and 
give away a few scientific books, or a few thou- 
sand, every year as well as tons upon tons of 
stale Congressional speeches and reports, for the 
benefit of Congressmen. Why are not men of 
science as much entitled to free scientific books 
as are the agriculturists to the tons of seeds an- 
nually distributed by the Department of Agricul- 
ture? There are more venerable abuses than the 
printing and free distribution of a few scientific 
books to persons who have no use for them. It 
is more than probable that in time, every book 
given away will have fulfilled its mission. As 
they increase in age they will increase in scien- 
tific value, and fall into appreciative hands. 
It is impossible to ever estimate how much 
scientific investigation and discovery have been, 
and are now retarded, or altogether prevent- 
ed by the cost of books and the scarcity of 
good scientific libraries. In the shadow of 
Harvard one may be independent of the price of 
books; but ‘ out West,’ or ‘ down South,’ it is an 
entirely different matter. Anyone at all famil- 
iar with the extent and character of our govern- 
ment publications does not need to be told that 
there has been issued and distributed throughout 
every state, a score of valuable scientific works, 
which could never have appeared in any other 
way, and even if they had, would have been so 
costly that only the wealthy few could have pur- 
chased them. 
It is entirely probable that a plan of distribu- 
tion can be adopted which will produce more 
satisfactory results than are at present obtained. 
To place the right publications in the hands of 
the right parties and no others, is the end to be 
sought, and it is by no means a difficult one. But 
to farm out our scientific publications as Science 
suggests, is quite another thing. We can see no 
grounds for the belief that any private publish- 
ing house could print and bind books, and sup- 
ply them to the government for any less money 
than the Public Printer. The naive proposition 
that the government should contract with pub- 
lishers to print its scientific reports, buy of them 
at about cost price all it wished to give away, 
and leave them to put the remainder on the 
market in the ordinary way, would make any 
publisher smile. It is hard enough to sell a 
purely scientific work even under a copyright, 
but for a publisher to sell books in competition 
with a government which would- give them 
away to all his patrons would be a novelty in the 
book trade to say the least. 
We protest that there is not here “an excellent 
opportunity for the educated classes to enter a 
protest,” except in regard to the plan of distri- 
bution. The National Government is engaged 
in educating the people on a more liberal scale 
than the world has ever seen until now, and the 
avearge of intelligence is rising with a rapidity 
which the older nations can neither understand 
nor appreciate. If it has not the finest navy and 
army and the heaviest fortifications in the world, 
it certainly has the most intellignt population as 
awhole, and at the same time it is doing its ut- 
most to encourage scientific investigation, and to 
disseminate the knowledge thus obtained. It is 
sometimes the highest wisdom to let well enough 
alone. W. T. H. 
A Scientific Thief. 
Professor has received from his friend, Prof. 
John Collet, State Geologist of Indiana, the fol- 
lowing letter: 
Indianapolis Ind., February 8, 1884. 
Dear Prof. Ward: 
W. R. Taggart, professing to be a deaf mute, 
called at my office, Indiana State Geologist, No- 
vember 22^ 1888. He pretended to be the W. 
R. Taggart who served with Hayden’s Corps in 
the West 1872-75, to be connected with your 
establishment at Rochester, with Whitfield Am. 
Museum, Central Park, N. Y., and with collect- 
ing for Ohio Statistical Bureau, Newberry’s Coal 
Survey, &c. 
He is apparently 28 to 30 years old, about 5 
feet 9 inches high, and 150 lbs. in weight, with 
light complexion, brown hair, and light gray or 
blue eyes; of good aggressive address and plausi- 
ble. He has some smattering knowledge of 
fossils and ardent love of cabinets and relics of 
stone age. 
He borrowed for an evening Schimper's Paleon- 
tology Vegetale and Fossil Plan of the Tertiary, 
to take notes. He played the same game on 
Prof. Nelson, Delaware, O., Sam’l B. Shoup, E. 
E. Dayton, O., (at this place he is believed to 
have given the name as Douglas), as Douglas 
again he called upon Geo. Caswell of Children’s 
Home, Dayton, O. 
Taggart in some way beat Col. R. S. Robertson 
of Fort Wayne, Ind., and showed him my copy 
of Schimper's Paleontology Vegetate saying it was 
worth $75. 
Everybody should be warned of this thief; and 
all scientists should unite to buy him a coffin. 
Besides books he is usually well supplied with 
fossils and Indian relics, probably accumulated 
in inspecting cabinets. 
1 will pay liberally for his arrest with identify- 
ing evidence that will send him to the peniten- 
tiary of Indiana. It is believed that he worked 
up Minnesota and Wisconsin last year, and that 
he is a deaf mute only when occasion requires, 
Yours truly, John Collet. 
We have heard of the above scoundrel in 
several other localities of Ohio and Minnesota, 
where, under name of W. Rush Taggart and 
pretence of being agent for this establishment, 
he has swindled various parties out of books and 
specimens. We warn all parties against him. 
And we take this occasion to say, to all whom it 
may concern that Ward’s Natural Science Estab- 
lishment has no agents. Editor’s Bulletin. 
