204 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE 



THE ^YORK OF THE NEW YORK 

 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



The Zoological Society has per- 

 formed an important service for the 

 city of New York by the establishment 

 and conduct of a Zoological Park and 

 later by taking charge of the Aqua- 

 rium. The relations of the society to 

 the city are similar to those of the 

 trustees of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, of the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Art and the Botanical Gar- 

 den, but are somewhat unusual. In 

 each case the city provides the build- 

 ings and the cost of maintenance, while 

 a private corporation supplies the col- 

 lections and is responsible for the con- 

 duct of the institution. The plan 

 appears to have worked very well, as j 

 each institution has had a strong or- 

 ganization, free from any political 

 control, but effective in obtaining large 

 appropriations from the city and con- I 

 siderable private gifts. 



The fourteenth annual report of the 

 Zoological Society lays emphasis on 

 increasing the scientific work done both 



at the park and the aquarium. The 

 institutions have been extremely suc- 

 cessful in gathering and maintaining 

 large collections of animals and inter- 

 esting the public in them; but they 

 have not as yet been able to undertake 



i research work comparable in value. 

 The director of the aquarium writes in 

 his report, " The small aquarium at 

 Naples has made Naples famous." It 

 is not, however, the exhibition tanks, 

 but the research work and publications 



1 of the station which have added to the 

 fame of Naples. The entertainment 

 and instruction of the public is an im- 

 portant function for the city to under- 

 take, and the money devoted to these 

 purposes at the Zoological Park and 

 the Aquarium is well spent. But 

 money used for research is not spent 

 at all ; it is invested for the perma- 

 nent benefit of all the people. Zoolog- 

 ical gardens have hitherto emphasized 

 scientific work less than have botan- 

 ical gardens, but there are problems of 

 comparative psychology and compara- 

 tive pathology to which collections of 



The Administration Building of the New York Zoological Society. 



