Abstract
THE present edition of this valuable little handbook contains several material alterations. Chapters have been added on the preparation of mammalian skeletons, with special notes on the collection of specimens of Cetacea, on the collecting and preservation of worms, and on alcohol and alcoholometers; while the chapters dealing with soft-bodied and other invertebrates, birds, reptiles, batrachians, fishes, and insects have been considerably modified. The trustees of the British Museum are well advised in issuing the handbook at a low price and in portable form (it measures 7 in. × 5 in. × ½ in.), for it constitutes an authoritative manual of instructions on the collecting and preservation of all objects included under the comprehensive title of “natural history.” The hunter of big game is told how to skin his “kills” and to preserve the pelt and skeleton to the best advantage; indeed, collectors of every kind receive instructions enabling them to render their captures of real scientific value when brought home for detailed examination. The handbook should lie on the work-table of the curator of every museum, and be in the kit-bag of everyone who is prepared during his travels to preserve objects for the enrichment of our national or other public collections. There are very few curators who will not learn something of value to their museum from these pages; and probably none who have not at one time or other been compelled regretfully to scrap material presented because the well-meaning donor has not known how to collect intelligently or to preserve usefully. In future there need be no such mistakes.
Handbook of Instructions for Collectors.
Fourth edition. Pp. 222. (London: The British Museum (Natural History), 1921.) 5s.
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Handbook of Instructions for Collectors . Nature 108, 112 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/108112a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/108112a0