WCP4239

[1]

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

Sept[embe]r 30th, 1909

Dear Mr Cockerell¹

I should have written to you before, but I have been much occupied and am getting back my strength so slowly that I can hardly keep pace with my ordinary correspondence. But I hope soon to be able to go on seriously with my book. The letter in which you gave me you general views on the philosophy of nature is very interesting, and I was glad to find that we agreed on so many subjects, on many of which you have, in your very clear statement, expressed my views better than I [2] could have done myself.

Yours of Sept[ember]. 15 just received. Thanks for the figures as to Flora of Colorado, & Switzerland, & for the promise of others later.

If you can find time, I wish you would write to "Nature"²— or if at more length to the "Fortnightly Review"³ — on a matter of great importance to the Phil[osophical]. study of Biology. Our vast accumulations of Plants at Kew, and of Insects at the Nat[ural]. Hist[ory]. Museum contain a mass of most valuable Geograph[ica]^l & Statistical information, quite lost, useless and unknown, owing to the absurd system of devoting all the time & energies of the staff of curators [3] etc. on describing new sp[ecies]. or on small groups here and there, or publishing a few enormous and very costly works like Sharp[‘]s⁴ Cat[alogue]. of Birds, — which though intrinsically of great value, are lost to the mass of workers owing to cost & bulk. Thiselton-Dyer⁵wrote me lately that he "groans over the masses of material which lie useless & unknown at Kew."

I have urged the last & present Directors of the Nat[ural]. Hist[ory]. Museum to devote their influence to making a simple Catalogue of the Museum[‘s] contents, beginning with the richest and most popular families or sub-order of Insects — Longicorns[?], Carabidae, Gecuddidae[?][,] Lounellicorns[?] & also Diurnal Lepidoptera. This Cat[alogue] or List, couild be made by intelligent Clerks only, by going over the Cabinets or Cases, in [4] systematic order, and entering every specific name, (or Sp[ecies]. [word illeg.]) and the numbers of the specimens in the Museum from each separate locality. The Clerk or clerks could be under the general supervision of the Curator of the special Department.

From this M[anu]s[cript]s. List, a Card-catalogue should be set up and stereotyped; there being a card for each species and named variety, and in the case of all wide-spread species, separate cards for each Continent or each considerable Country. By printing several sets of these cards, a card catalogue for any sub-family or genus, or for any Geog[raphical]. Region, or Country, could be made up at a low price, & would be invaluable to all private collectors, as telling them at once what is in the B[ritish]. M[useum]. & where from, while the number of specimens w[oul]^d be some guide to the abundance or rarity of the species.[5] 5⁶

I am immensely impressed with the value of the plan of Card Catalogues so much used in America[,] but I supposed almost unknown here except for Libraries.

I have no time or strength to go into this subject properly, but you could do it well, & make it popularly interesting; & if you will do so I will recommend its publication to the Editors of the "Fortnightly" or "Contemporary"⁷. [6] It would cost a minimum, and would be of immense value. You might urge that every tax-paying ^naturalist has a right to know the contents of the Collections, — & that ^{to make and keep up to date} such a catalogue sh[oul]^d be the first & continuous duty of all Keepers of public Collections — not the description of species. It might be well if their sole duty was to get the collections in proper order for cataloguing.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]