Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/77

Rh now thoroughly established in our government service, and is one of the most conspicuous marks of the superiority of our scientific bureaus over those of many nations. I have ventured to select two of Baird's letters to previously unknown correspondents as examples of his method. The first is to the sender of a hair-worm, that animal which most naturalists have learned to abhor because of the frequency with which they are called upon to explain its nature. Many of us, I fear, would have sent a curt reply, but not so Baird:

June 28, 1853. Dear Sir:

The specimen you send is one of Gordius or hair-worm, a very interesting entozoon. The fact you mention of its crawling from the body of a cricket is very interesting as tending to settle the question whether the Gordius crawls into or out of the animal it infests. The association between the two has long been known, but every available fact bearing on the subject is of great value.

Dr. Ridgway has elsewhere published (Smithsonian Report for 1888, p. 711) his first letter from Baird; here is the first letter to E. D. Cope:

March 27,&ensp;—58.

Dear Sir:

I was much pleased to receive your letter this morning and to see the minuteness of your knowledge of the Batrachia of Penna. I would be glad to know how extensive your herpetological studies have been, whether covering other branches than the Batrachia anoura, and whether you have gone at all into other classes.

In reference to your Hylodes&hellip;I can not without a reference to our specimens (at present somewhat inaccessible) decide. It appears, however, much like some dark varieties of the Hyla pickeringii. In a paper enclosed you will find description of some new frogs, one, Helocætes feriarum hitherto only observed near Carlisle. I make the Hylodes pickeringii a Hyla, as I can not distinguish it generically. Of course not congeneric with acris. What do you mean by Hylodes&hellip;? This may be the feriarum.

If your time is at your own disposal, it might be worth your while to visit Washington, and examine our Herpetological collections, which are of extraordinary richness. Our specimens of North American serpents number over 600 specimens and about 140 species.

It will always give me pleasure to hear from you and to render any assistance in my power to your studies.

As the new material came in to the museum from all directions, it had to be taken care of and worked up. It is difficult to understand how Baird avoided being literally buried beneath the pile of accessions.