ABSTRACT
Most museums have a certain amount of money available annually for the purchase of material for the collections, and are liable at times to receive gifts or bequests; the larger institutions may also from time to time send out scientific expeditions to collect material for their collections, and members of their scientific staffs may have the opportunity of participating in such expeditions. The museum systematist of the present day is overwhelmingly preoccupied with problems of discrimination among closely allied forms. Academic systematists often succumb to the temptation to specialise in techniques or approaches rather than in particular taxa, they are liable to preach and practise numerical taxonomy, comparative serology, stem anatomy, chromosome studies, etc. The systematist will attempt to make good deficiencies in his reference collection by consulting published works in which the missing species are defined, or by communicating with specialists in other museums.
