414 PROCEEDINGS OF TIIE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
readers than for the student. A noteworthy deficiency 
under this head is that of the great works relating 
to the West Indies and Tropical America. The fol- 
lowing are, I consider, indispensable : 
The series of Works relating to Humboldt’s voyage. 
D’Orbigny’s Amerique Heridionale — Spix and Martius’s 
Work on Brazil — the Works of the Castelnau expedition — 
the fine series of Works contained in Ramon de la Sagra’s 
Histoire de Cuba, of which the Library possesses only 
the political portion. 
A number of Works relating to the Natural History of 
the West Indies, and particularly to Botany, are included 
in the Criiger collection, now lodged at the Botanic Gar- 
dens. The Leotaud collection contains part of Cuvier’s 
Begne Animal, together with Gray’s Genera of Birds, 
Gosse’s Birds of Jamaica, and other works of great value. 
The chief objection made to the purchase of Scientific 
Works is the withdrawal of funds from the purchase of 
books more interesting to the general reader, and to those 
who use the Library as a circulating library. I admit the 
force of those objections, but I am compelled to qualify 
he admission by a reference to the fact, that large sums 
have been spent on the raw material of History, chiefly of 
Europe, of no interest, and comparatively little value here ; 
and that when the revenue of the Library was greater 
than it is now, no efforts were made to supply the defi- 
ciencies in Works relating {o our own part of the world. 
Had £20 .a year been set apart from the beginning for 
the purpose, some little might have been done, for costly 
books of the kind are not produced every day or every 
year. Now that the Borough Council have withdrawn 
their contribution, I think it is the duty of the Government 
not to let the Library suffer, or its usefulness become im- 
