84 Z. Korsós SÁNDOR ÚJHELYI and SZABÓ on a collecting trip in Barcs DELY’s notes on <strong>the</strong> history <strong>of</strong> Hungarian herpetology Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 100, 2008
<strong>History</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Herpetological</strong> <strong>Collection</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> HNHM 85 With <strong>the</strong> death <strong>of</strong> DELY, a great era has ended in <strong>the</strong> history <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Herpetological</strong> <strong>Collection</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Hungarian Natural <strong>History</strong> Museum. DELY was <strong>the</strong> last classic Hungarian museologist herpetologist (KORSÓS 2004b), who did his examinations mainly on <strong>the</strong> material preserved in <strong>the</strong> collection using a microscope and morphological analyses. He incredibly respected his predecessors (MÉHELY, BOLKAY, FEJÉRVÁRY), and by <strong>the</strong> thoughts he learned from <strong>the</strong>ir papers – his thoroughness, his exact observations and descriptions, his pragmatic explanations and his careful evaluation – he deserves to be mentioned on <strong>the</strong> same level with <strong>the</strong>m. He respected and loved <strong>the</strong> reflections <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> former periods <strong>of</strong> zoological activities, as well as <strong>the</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional literature, until <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> his life. He was constantly collecting data to write <strong>the</strong> history <strong>of</strong> Hungarian herpetology, but at <strong>the</strong> end, he only left a few notebook pages about it (Fig. 48). Although he was not “born” to be a herpetologist, he treated <strong>the</strong> animal group, which was assigned to him after <strong>the</strong> war – amphibians and reptiles – as his “own animals”, and he took care <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> collection and this branch <strong>of</strong> science very enthusiastically, always keeping his duties in mind. By <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> his life, <strong>the</strong> role <strong>of</strong> museums in culture has changed worldwide. The purpose <strong>of</strong> natural history museums – especially with regards to <strong>the</strong> vertebrates – was no longer <strong>the</strong> accumulation <strong>of</strong> dead material and <strong>the</strong> documentation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fauna, but ra<strong>the</strong>r to play a role as a zoological research center, which provides indispensable information on <strong>the</strong> biology <strong>of</strong> species and <strong>the</strong>ir conservation also by examination <strong>of</strong> living populations. In <strong>the</strong> light <strong>of</strong> this role-change, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Herpetological</strong> <strong>Collection</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 200-year-old Hungarian Natural <strong>History</strong> Museum came to <strong>the</strong> threshold <strong>of</strong> a new era. * Acknowledgements – The following persons kindly provided data and gave helpful comments during different stages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> preparation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> manuscript: DIÁNA CSEKE, GÁBOR CSORBA, LÁSZLÓ FORRÓ, ISTVÁN MATSKÁSI, FERENC MÉSZÁROS, GYÕZÕ SZÉL (HNHM, Department <strong>of</strong> Zoology, Budapest), JUDIT VÖRÖS (present Curator <strong>of</strong> <strong>Herpetological</strong> <strong>Collection</strong>, HNHM, Department <strong>of</strong> Zoology, Budapest), ÉVA LENGYEL, ANGÉLA MATUSZKA, GÁBOR PAPP (HNHM, Department <strong>of</strong> Library, Budapest), GÁBOR PAPP (HNHM, Department <strong>of</strong> Geology and Paleontology), WOLFGANG BÖHME (Museum und Forschungsinstitut Alexander Koenig, Bonn), JÓZSEF BÜKI (Ministry <strong>of</strong> Environment and Water, Budapest), ISTVÁN BECKERT, MÁRIÓ BURGETTI, ÁGNES DELY-DRASKOVITS, LÁSZLÓ KRECSÁK, ANDRÁS SEVCSIK (Budapest), CSABA HORVÁTH (Sopron), GYÖRGY SIPOS (Érd) and TAMÁS TÓTH (Budapest Zoo). Grateful thanks are due to all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m. I am deeply indebted to my son, ATTILA KORSÓS, for translating <strong>the</strong> text into English, and to Pr<strong>of</strong>essor KRAIG ADLER (Cornell University, Ithaca, USA) for useful comments and linguistic corrections. Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 100, 2008