X892 
Mexico City 
(Mexico) 
July 
National 
Museum 
the TJ.S. and I think this accounts to a great extent to the deep- 
rooted distrust of the P. 0. I find among people in Mexico* When a 
bright, intelligent postal official is encountered, even in the 
large cities, it is always a startling surprise. 
After attending to n$r business with Senor Romero, I paid a visit 
to the National Museum which ms undergoing repairs in the Archaeolo¬ 
gical Hall. Above, in company with the botanist Mr. Pringle, I found 
the Zoological and Botanical parts of the Museum in charge of a pro¬ 
fessor of botany with a zoological assistant, Senor Professor Alfonso 
L. Herrera, Hi jo. The collection contains a poor series of mounted 
birds and mammals of the country with alcoholics of fishes and reptiles. 
The collection is very badly labelled with almost a total lack of data 
as to locality, date, and collector, which are generally considered in* 
dispensible. 
In the birds and mammals, not a tithe of the common species are 
represented and the Museum is wholly without any study specimens ex¬ 
cept those mounted and on exhibition. 
The library is also extremely scanty so that the naturalists in 
charge labor under the greatest difficulty in identifying their 
material. Some additions are being made to the Arohaeologioal series 
and the botanical department is taking a series of plants from 
Mr. Pringle, but the zoological department appears to be at a stand¬ 
still. The gentlemen in charge are very cordial and polite in their 
reception of visiting naturalists, but their work is sadly hampered 
by their isolation from centres of scientific work and their lack of 
appreciation of the value of field work in developing the rich field 
they occupy* As a result the publications of a scientific character 
in Mexico are very largely given to a reproduction of the results 
published by foreign naturalists, of work in Mexico. 
88 - 
