action of an undying universal Inw which places before them two alternatives, — prepress or death!
But to return to the practical question, whether the national museum is a fit place for the present deposit of unique collections of periflhable objects, we may say, that, while the liitnre of the mnscuu seems to be assured, we have no sufficient historical ground for belief, that it will reach stability without serious lapses; and that until it supports a competent salaried chief of its entomolc^ical department, frith at least one paid assistant, it stands in no position to invite the donation, or to war- rant the purchase, of a single valuable col- lection of such perishable objects as insects. ■I'hat the time will come when it is properly equipped, we cannot doubt; that it should reach it through the sacrifice of Mr. Riley's, or of any other choice collection, would be a burning shame: this is the immediate risk.
��LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
•.* QimipimdnUartrriiunttdlobtaibrie/iHpotMh. The terilrr'i *am> U <n all ram reqairid ai proof of goad Jallh.
The voice of serpent*.
Prof. C. H. Hitchcock's nole in No. 104 bring! lo mind a fact noted In my laboratory, which may be ot interest to lierpelologlsls. In the autumn of 18S.1 !i friend brought to me two magnificent living speci- mens of the FommoD prairie bull snake, Pituophls Sayi. I gave them the freedom of my lecture-room, and they aoon made tbemselvea perfectly at liome.
One day, while working with a large induction-coil, Ibethoiight me of my suakes, and caught the larger (his length was about five feet), anil passed a power- ful charge of electricity through his spinal column. As Uie clrcait was broken and made, I was much sur- prised to hear a faint lhoUf(h perfectly distinct cry from his snakesbip. My notes made at the time ipeak of this sound as shnllar to the voice of a young puppy.
During a period of n moiith or more, this experi- ment was repeated with one or tlio niher of these ser- pents, and always with this cry of pain or anger.
H. H. Nicholson.
Unlvtrtily of Stbruk*. Fub. IB.
nie ooUection of inieota In die natloaal
��In reference to my remarks on Ihe above-named subject, your eiplanatiou, that you meant ' the per- )ietuai care of valuable collecUons' (p. 23), meet* my criticism; and there would be no need lo recur to the subject, were it not (or ProfesKor Femald's cora- niunlcatloD on the lanie page. Be there says, " The national museum has appointed an liunorary curator,
��NCE. [VOL, v.. No. 1«.
but it might as well he without one as to have one whose entire time is occupied elsewhere." Professor Fernald speaks here wilhout knowledge, and under misapprehension ot the facts. The honorary curt- torship of insects is not 'worse tlian usele.'s.' and the curator's time is not wholly ' occupied elsewbere.'
The organic law (Revised sUtuies. $55S6; Statute) forty-flfth congress, third aeaaion, chap. 182, p. 3«) aulhorlMS the director of the national museum to claim any collections made by other departmenla of the government. The national museum has a sub- stantial lire-pronf building, and a stable administra- tion. The department of agriculture bssatlnder-boK, and the administration shares the uncertain influence of politics. Yet connected with the practical enu-
��with [lie approval of the commissioner of agrleti)- ture, 1 have, as U. S, entomolugist, luolced upon mate- rial accumulated for the latter Institution as belonging to the former, and have freely given my own time, and that of my asslstanU when necessary, to the entomological work devolving on the curator of said national museum. The two posiilona are naturally linked.
I am familiar with most of the insect-collections of the country, and believe, that, during the past three years, more original material has been collected ex- pressly for the national museum, and more has been mounted for it, than for any other institution, net excepting the Agasslz museum at Cambridge, wllfa its excellent Insect department under Dr. Hsgen; while. Including the collection of the department of agriculture, and my own (which is deposited In the museum, and will l>e donated whenever such donation Is justlQed), there has been by far more biographic work done for it than for any other luo- seum. Even In the Mlcro-lepidoptera, it is probably next in extent lo that of Professor Fernald. The care of museum material is of a twofold nature. The preservation of valuable type-collections requires vigilance, but tittle labor. The less labor, In some instances, bestowed upon them, the better; at leasli BO I thought last summer in witnessing the overh&ol ing and re-labelling of Grole's collection In the Bri! ish museum. The preservalinn and ctuslBcatloQ original material, on the contrary, requires brai~ time, and means.
The future and perpetual care ot an entomoli cal museum cannot be absolutely giutranteed withi endowment; but appropriation to a government stitution, though depending on the annual action congress, is proliably the next best security. 1 agree with all Science ha* said as to the need proper and subslantlal provision for such future ot the insect department of the museum. Washii ton is fast becoming the chief natural-history of the country; and the national museum Is raaklnfl rapid strides toward justifying lis name, and olTera, on the whole, as secure a repository for collections aa any other institution. I spejik of the museum as it (• t(Kday, and not as It has been. The misapprehen- sion Indicated, whether an outgrowth of the amoonl of natural-history material that has gone to rack ruin here In the past in other departments aa as In entomology, or a result of present rivalry, certainly not justified to-day.
Professor Fernald truly remarks that "many seum officials have very little appreciation of the vast amount of labor, care, skill, and knowledge re- quired " toproperiy manage a large and varied lusect- cullection. Tilings arc too often valued by their size, and the pyguiy bugs have nut outgrown populi ~
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