U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 
C. HART MERRIAM, CHIEF. 
T. S. PALMER, Assistant Chief. WASHINGTON, D. C. 
February 28, 1900. 
Mr. William Brewster 
Cambridge, Mass. 
Dear Brewster: 
It is much to be regretted that you, Batchelder, and Faxon 
were unable to be present at the meeting of the A. 0. U. Index Com¬ 
mittee held here last week. In matters of this kind it is almost 
impossible to arrive at the best results except by coming together 
where we can listen to the arguments pro and con. 
From our point of view at this end of the line, the two car¬ 
dinal principles to be kept in view in indexing are (l) the object 
of an index, which is convenience in looking up references; and 
(2—-a natural corollary of the first) that where page references 
accumulate under a given entry, they should be classified under 
dis criminative subheadings to avoid,what we so often see in old 
style indexes—solid blocks of page numbers. We passed a resolu¬ 
tion to the effect that not more than six page references should be 
given under one heading. 
There are two points concerning which we feel very strongly 
at this end of the line,and on which Doctor Dwight tells mo you 
differ from us radically, and I promised to write you and present 
our views. The first is the generic name under which the various 
entries sh ould be arranged; the second is the treatment of subspe¬ 
cies. In the case of the generic name, we feel that the late st 
nym£ adopted by the A. 0, U. should be the one under which the en¬ 
tries are arranged in the Index, and that all other generic names 
