Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)

Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum

Table 3. List of snakes by KÁROLI (1879) with collection locality data from Hungary Scientific name in KÁROLI Present scientific Occurrences according to KÁROLI 1879 1879 name (collection data) Tropidonotus natrix Natrix natrix Pest, Tázlár, Nagy-Szeben, Zilah, Sár-Egres, Kassa, Nagy-Várad, Sátoralja-Ujhely Tropidonotus tessellatus Natrix tessellata Buda, Nagy-Szeben, Slavonia, Kassa, NagyVárad, Kolozsvár, Mátra, Szent-Endre Callopeltis aesculapii Elaphe longissima Buda, Mehádia, Morovich Zamenis viridiflavus Coluber caspius Buda, Mehádia, Zajzon, Baziás, Vulkán, Morovich, Sz.Gellért-, Sas- and Ó-Buda Hills Coronella austriaca Coronella austriaca Buda, Beszterczebánya, Szeged, Nagy-Szeben, Zilah, Mehádia, Kassa, Nagyvárad, Homonna Vipera ammodytes Vipera ammodytes Mehádia, Orsova, Szászka Pelias berus Vipera berus Pest, Tátrafüred, Öcsöm Bálán, Trencsin, Liptó, Pozsega, Máramaros, Fájna Valley, Orsova, Kolozsvár, Borszék, Radna, Kassa, Ránki Spa This kind of state - chiefly the lack of professional management - always has an effect on the development of the collection, because there is no sense in "increasing the collection aimlessly without the supervision of a professional. The true value of the collection is only revealed if a professional processes the material. Otherwise it remains dead treasure, the maintenance and keeping of which puts a great burden on the shoulders of the museum." (MÉHELY 1902). The directorate felt the unpleasant state, but due to the lack of professional candidates, their efforts towards füling the job (the curator's) did not succeed. OTTÓ HERMAN nominated ADOLF LENDL ( 1862-1942) for the assistant curator of the Department of Zoology between 1889 and 1894 (Fig. 15). Previously, between 1885 and 1887, LENDL was a teacher in the zoological department of the Technical University, Budapest. During his museum years, LENDL decided to have the herpetological material at his disposal identified by foreign professionals. The amphibians and reptiles brought home by the expedition of BÉLA SZÉCHENYI from East Asia (1877-1880) were, for instance, sent to FRANZ STEINDACHNER (1834-1919) in Vienna, who published his results a couple of years later (STEINDACHNER 1898). His paper was translated into Hungarian by LENDL (STEINDACHNER 1897). LENDL did not stay long in the museum. After his departure he established a zoological preparatory laboratory and an institute for producing educational tools, and in 1901 he became a parliamental delegate (SÁRINGER 1982). He stayed in a good relationship with the museum, and he kept his intererest in reptiles, though this was not quite reflected in scientific publications (e.g. LENDL 1899). Instead, he worked with spiders and wrote popular reviews. In 1906, the museum asked him to go on a collecting journey to Turkey and in the next year to Argentina and Chile, too (he crossed South America by foot). During his journey in Turkey he caught lizards in the Taurus Mts, where "... lives a rare lizard species, which we needed to have for our honour. The court museum of Vienna had two specimens of it;