6 Director's Annual Report. 



several hundred feet away for the Press, Taxidermy, Photography 

 aud everything else. So in the process of evolution we may attain 

 even greater helps in our work . 



With no suitable workrooms, still less any adequate store- 

 rooms at present, a condition of things which is I believe admitted 

 by all the Trustees, the w'orkers in the Museum cannot justly be 

 blamed if they do not take active measures to increase the collec- 

 tions when we have nowhere to prepare, exhibit or store them. 

 When they have not sufficient room apart from the public exhibi- 

 tion halls to unpack valuable collections already in possession; 

 when they see valuable specimens fade away to worthlessness in 

 the exhibition cases because they have no other place safe from 

 insects in wdiich to store them. 



And this brings me to the consideration of one of the most 

 important objects for which this Museum was founded, — Xhe pre- 

 scrvation of the objects collected within its walls. We have taken 

 several important steps in that direction : a durable and essen- 

 tially fire-proof building ; cases as insect- and dust-proof as they 

 can be made ; a free use of preservatives, poisons and insecticides. 

 All this is well but not enough. Certain rare specimens should 

 no longer be exposed to the intensely actinic light of this climate 

 but be withdrawn from public exhibition and consequent expos- 

 ure, and stored for stud>- b>- another generation of scientists instead 

 of being sacrificed to the idle curiosity or unheeding gaze of the 

 average visitor. 



I had intended to place before 3^ou an analysis of what has 

 been published by eminent museologists, — Drs. Flower, Goode, 

 True and others on the side of work and store rooms, but our situ- 

 ation in the midst of the Pacific is so peculiar that even the gener- 

 ous allotment of work and store space by all these masters as 

 distinct from the public exhibition halls of a museum, will hardh- 

 meet the wants of this Museum in a tropical climate, where w^ork 

 rooms must not be cramped and heated, and storage must be well 



aired and accessible. Our conditions are greatly variant from 



[96] 



