302 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gress of Americanists for 1888. From these years of experience 

 Mr. dishing has gained a stock of information, little of which has 

 yet been published. At present he is again officially connected 

 with the Bureau of Ethnology. We have only suggested the 



work of this bureau, and 

 have not even mentioned 

 some workers who have 

 done good work. 



The collections made by 

 Government workers go to 

 three museums the mate- 

 rial in physical anthropol- 

 ogy to the Army Medical 

 Museum, that in ethnogra- 

 phy to the United States 

 National Museum, and that 

 in prehistoric archaeology 

 to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. The Army Medical 

 Museum is a great collec- 

 tion, beautifully arranged. 

 There is much material here 

 to interest the anthropolo- 

 gist many fine anatomical 

 specimens ; a wonderful se- 

 ries to illustrate the effects 

 of gunshot wounds and their healing; a goodly number of mon- 

 strosities ; most important of all are the skeletons and crania of 

 North American tribes more than two thousand of the latter. 



Prof. Otis T. Mason is in charge of the ethnological treasures 

 at the United States National Museum. He is a most systematic 

 worker, and his card catalogue of references to literature of eth- 

 nography is well worthy of study. His annual summaries of an- 

 thropological progress are exceedingly valuable. More than any 

 other American ethnographer he has carefully studied casing, 

 display, and labeling. Where, as in the Eskimo series, the mate- 

 rial from any given region or tribe is large in amount and varied 

 in character, the arrangement is geographical. In general, how- 

 ever, the idea in the arrangement is to show culture history. 

 This idea, so admirably carried out in Oxford, is scarcely found 

 elsewhere in American museums. Some of the series are excel- 

 lent ; the development of the knife, the history of musical instru- 

 ments, the history of fire-producing instruments are good. Some 

 cases tell the story of a whole technique ; thus the case of Guada- 

 lajara (Mexico) pottery shows by specimens and by small figures 

 of potters at work every step in the manufacture. A point that 



Adolf F. Bandelier. 



