478 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1881. 



render them attractive and instructive to visitors in general. The 

 present rate of growth of the museum and librar}^ and the 

 already crowded condition of the cases, suggest that ways and 

 means should be devised without delay to augment the building 

 fund. It is obvious that a vast museum and a great library 

 connected with it demand space for their accommodation commen- 

 surate with their extent ; and that a structure to embrace such 

 space cannot be erected in a day, at any time, nor without a large 

 sum. To raise sufficient money to complete the edifice designed 

 for the purposes of the Academy will be found an arduous and 

 slowly progressive enterprise. Therefore no date will be too early 

 for its commencement; its success will not be too soon. And for 

 this the Academy must, as heretofore, rely upon -the generosity 

 of the intelligent and public-spirited who believe with us that the 

 cultivation of the natural sciences is in many ways advantageous 

 to the public ; and that the project of completing the building and 

 expanding the museum of the Academy, till it shall be in every 

 sense a perfect museum of natural history, is worthy of favorable 

 consideration and prompt encouragement. 



Such an establishment would be an addition to the positive 

 attractions of Philadelphia, and thus become indirectly of com- 

 mercial value to the city ; especially if admission to it during a 

 part of every secular day were without fee, and monitors were 

 always at hand ready to explain to visitors the nature of the 

 objects displayed. It would be among the best of charities, for it 

 would help all to knowledge who are disposed to help themselves. 

 A leisurely promenade through a complete and well-arranged 

 museum of natural history, where questions of curious and 

 inquisitive visitors might be answered on the spot, would be almost 

 in itself an education in this connection. 



To hope for such a museum here is extravagant only in view of 

 the gi'eat expense. The chief obstacle in the wav of its realization 

 is the cost, which would possibly far exceed that of a free public 

 library of general literature, or a free public gallery of fine paint- 

 ings. A museum of natural objects might not be as alluring to 

 the masses as fictions told in prose or verse, or in different- 

 colored pigments deftly mingled and displayed, all exciting 

 admiration, and more likely to arouse romantic, even sensuous 

 notions than to convey a ray of truth of any sort to the mind of 

 the uncultured observer. But the influence of the museum in 



