The Bulletin of the College of Charleston Museum is publishetl monthly from Oct- 

 ober to Alay and is devoted to descriptions of exhibits, reports of lectures, and notes 

 from the Museum. Application made at the post office at Charleston, S. C. for entry as 

 second-ciass matter. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON MUSEUM 



Editeo by PAUL ^L. RE A 



CURATOR OF THE MUSEUM AND PROFESOR OF BIOLOGY 



Vol. 1 Charleston, S. C, April, 1905 No. l 



MUSEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY AND THEIR WORK = 



Until very recently the botany taught in our schools and 

 colleges was devoted almost exclusively to identification and 

 systematic arrangement of the flowering plants and ferns. 

 Nov*' all this is changed and a ''new" botany is firmly estab- 

 lished which studies the principles underlying the structure 

 and behavior of plants and relegates details of classification 

 to specialists. Zoology underwent a similar but perhaps more 

 gradual transformation some time ago and in both of these 

 cases the cause is to be sought in a general change in the aims 

 of biology. Each phase of this movement is conspiciously 

 shown in the history of our natural history museums. 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century the study of 

 natural history received a tremendous impetus from the la- 

 bors of the great Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus. At that time 

 there was great confusion in the nomenclature and classifi- 

 § cation of both animals and plants. Linnaeus showed untiring 

 1 "5 zeal in collecting and great genius in classifying. To each 





J 



* A public lecture by Profesor Rea on the occasion of the opening of Manigault 

 Hall as a lecture room. 



