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book on this subject. I would also most earnestly recommend [[superscript]] quest [[/superscript]] that contributors to our collections be impressed with the necessity of sending their specimens which are subject to destruction by moths, breakage, or weather, promptly to the Museum, and to give as much attention to preservation as to collection. It is a lamentable fact that a very large number of the objects received during my short term have been rendered comparatively worthless by a neglect of this precaution. I cannot think of a greater disaster in Museum Work than that in which the gathering of a life time frequently are sacrificed in a few short weeks. If contributors cannot comply with this request at once, they should soak the specimens in benzine to kill any vermin already concealed, and with a fine brush go over the parts in danger with a solution of arsenic and alcohol or corrosive sublimate in alcohohol, drying in the shade. 
It is my desire to make the preservation and exhibition of specimens a prominent feature of my curatorship. For the purpose of getting objects on exhibition in a creditable manner, it is absolutely necessary that they should be