Abstract
SINCE the death of Prof. Westwood and the appointment of his successor, the editor of the volume of Reports under consideration, the Hope Museum has gradually been undergoing expansion and regeneration. The collections are being overhauled and reclassified; the types are being identified as far as possible and carefully labelled, and the special British collections are being rearranged so as to preserve their historical interest. This development of the department under the care of Prof Poulton has been noted with satisfaction by those specialists who from time to time visit Oxford: and although the endowment, both for curatorship and equipment, is very limited, it must be conceded that the present Professor is doing his best to carry out the objects for which a museum of this kind exists, viz. to preserve specimens in such a way as to enable them to be available for use by students with the confidence which attaches to authentic records of date, locality and captor. This, at least, is the ideal which the Professor has set before himself, and it is only a matter of profound regret that the advanced years and declining health of the late distinguished occupant of the Rev. F W. Hope's foundation should have thrown upon his successor such an immense amount of purely mechanical labour. A good beginning has been made with the Lepidoptera with the co-operation of Colonel Swinhoe, Dr. F. A. Dixey, Prof. Sidgwick, and others; but many years must elapse before the other and less favoured groups are reduced to anything like the same degree of order.
The Hope Reports.
Vol. i., 1893–97. Edited by Edward B. Poulton, Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford. (Printed for private circulation.)
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M., R. The Hope Reports. Nature 57, 289–290 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057289a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057289a0
