Abstract
IT has always been recognised that scientific research is greatly furthered by the exchange of the various objects with which that research is concerned. For the transmission of objects of Natural History from one country to another, the mails have offered a cheap, speedy, and trustworthy means. Heretofore, through the laxity with which the regulations on the subject have been enforced, it has been possible to enter such objects in the mails of the Universal Postal Union as samples of merchandise and under the rates of postage therefor. From official information lately received from the Post Office Department of the United States it appears that such a rating is entirely unauthorised by existing provisions, and that objects of Natural History may be mailed to countries of the Union only, at the rates required for letters. The United States Post Office Department also stated that it had recently submitted a proposition to the countries composing the Postal Union to modify the regulations so that such specimens might be received into the mails at the same rates as samples of merchandise, but that a sufficient number of those countries had voted against the proposition to defeat it.
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WISTAR, I., NOLAN, E. The Postal Transmission of Natural History Specimens. Nature 49, 100 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/049100b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049100b0
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