I02 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The National Museum from the Street. 



in the city should be devoted to a li- 

 brary and to a museum. The general 

 aspect of the museum and the ground 

 plan are shown in the accompanying 

 illustrations. The new building is 

 placed on the Mall, the development 

 of which still remains in large measure 

 for the future, in front of the Smith- 

 sonian building, which it faces. It is 

 a massive structure, four stories in 

 height, with a frontage of 561 feet, a 

 depth of 365 feet and a dome rising 

 162 feet above the ground level. The 

 exterior of the building is not greatly 

 ornamented, but its massive white 

 granite and the lines and proportions 

 give a pleasing effect. 



The lower floor, called the basement, 

 although it is raised several feet above 

 the adjoining street, contains labora- 

 tories, worksliops, storerooms and of- 

 fices, used largely for the research 

 work of the scientific staff. It also 

 unfortunately contains a heating plant 

 and ventilating system which pumps 

 dust into the collections. The main 

 floor presents a continuous floor space, 

 the middle part of each wing being 



carried up to the second story. Three 

 exceptionally large halls are thus 

 formed, well adapted to the exhibition 

 of the collections. The second story 

 has less floor space, but ample gal- 

 leries; the third story is reserved for 

 laboratories and the storage of the col- 

 lections intended for scientific research. 



JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER 

 Sir Joseph Hooker is now dead at 

 the age of ninety-five years. Only 

 Wallace, aged ninety years, and Lister, 

 aged eighty-five years, remain of the 

 company of great men who were the 

 contemporaries of Darwin. Since the 

 birth of Roger Bacon, eight centuries 

 ago, to the Victorian era, England has 

 produced a succession of leading sci- 

 entific men. We may hope that the 

 hereditary genius of the race is not 

 exhausted and that some part of it has 

 been bequeathed to us in this country. 

 Indeed Hooker himself is evidence of 

 the persistence of genius, for his father 

 was a botanist of equal eminence. 



William Jackson Hooker, born in 

 1785, had independent means, which in 



