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we would spend time in identifying and studying them. Then we usually brought them to the Museum. That is how I got acquainted with the Museum, its Directors and personnel.
The first persons I came to know were Octave Piel S.J. and P. Bourgeois S.J.. Piel was a distinguished entomologist as well as an archaeologist. He studied Hymenoptera and specialized in the research of Parthenogenesis of a group of ground wasps. His description of new species and experiments were published in a series of Notes entomologiques du Musee Heude and other worldwide scientific journals. His interests in Archaeology and Art were evident by show cases exhibiting Chinese artifacts, antique curios and vases, set out at the entrance of the museum.
P. Bourgeois was not a scientist, as far as I know. He was some kind of general manager of the Museum, while at the same time he taught pre-university students. He was a friendly gentleman introducing students and other people to the Museum activities, collaborating with scientists and university students in their projects; translating, typing manuscripts, compiling lists and indices; in short, doing all the donkey work.
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When Piel went into semi-retirement, a young clergyman replaced him progressively. This was P. Becquaert. I knew Becquaert well. He was very active and seemed to do a good job. His interests: the Staphylinidae family of insects or staphs. My colleague and I would have collected, among other insects, hundreds of staphs, picked up from special baits set up in the garden in order to satisfy Becquaert's insistent demand. Unfortunately, Becquaert had no scientific training; he was no match for the eminent scientists that had preceded him. It was wartime and the authorities were unable to obtain anyone of, say, Piel's calibre. Soon, Becquaert got involved in dubious connections. He not only lost his interest in entomology, but also his priestly state and his faith. He had published a book on staphs. But the introduction was so full of scientific errors, full of incorrect assumptions and spurious statements, that his successor had to withdraw the book from distribution. Before introducing his successor, however, I must mention a few other people.
Dr. Jacques Roi S.J. came to Shanghai in 1944. He had spent a few years in North China at the Geo-Biologic Institute of Beijing. In 1941, he published Phytogeograph of Central Asia, a highly scientific paper with graphs, plates, and maps. During his short stay in Shanghai, he