SYNOPSIS OF PROCEEDINGS. 305 



in the programme of the Geographical Society of Washington and of 

 the Appalachian Club of Boston. 



A dozen or so years ago the Academy became the headquarters of 

 the local chapters of the Agassiz Association. Here were held the 

 weekly meetings at which observations were reported and papers read 

 and discussed. Here, as a result of excursions to the haunts of nature, 

 was begun an embryo museum, not perhaps valuable in itself but of 

 the greatest value in teaching classification and arrangement. Here 

 the would-be scientists — most of them students of the High School — 

 gathered their younger brothers and sisters and friends and helped 

 them organize a junior chapter, an extension movement which was of 

 benefit to all concerned. In course of time the Agassiz chapters 

 ceased to exist, but not until they had accomplished abundant good. 

 Some of the members have maintained their personal interest in nat- 

 ural history or science, but even those who have not, frequently testify 

 that their dabbling in science was not all play ; that it had an educa- 

 tional value not to be slighted. A similar organization among the 

 students of today might well be encouraged. 



VALUE OF THE MUSEUM. 



It is hard to overestimate the educational value of a museum. One 

 function of a museum is to bring together a scientific collection for 

 the purpose of study by specialists, and to preserve those relics of a 

 past race which would otherwise become scattered and lost. Thanks 

 to its early devoted members, its indefatigable collectors and to its 

 generous contributors, the Academy has a scientific museum that has 

 attracted specialists not only from the east and west of our own coun- 

 try, but also from distant Europe. Aside, however, from this strictly 

 scientific value of the museum, there is a popular and educational one. 

 The laboring man in Paris who spends an hour in the Louvre to warm 

 his hands and feet certainly absorbs something from the art treasures 

 spread out before him. Who can tell how much good our own 

 museum has done to those who have drifted in merely to kill time, or 

 because some friend has told them about it? Surely eyes have been 

 opened and the breadth of vision broadened. How much more 

 Egypt means to the boy who has seen the mummy ! How much more 

 real are the mound-builders to us who know their animal pipes, their 

 axes of copper covered with cloth ! How much nearer to us is the 

 Eskimo when we look upon his kayak, his fire-making tools, and the 

 fur-seal which he hunts ! As with primitive and distant man, so with 

 nature. What can teach the ages and growth of the world so well as 

 the rocks and fossils? And what undying interest there is in the 

 cases of birds. The presence of such a museum in Davenport is a 

 boon that we cannot too highly appreciate. To accomplish the 

 greatest good, however, very much remains to be done. Owing to 

 the lack of space in the building, boxes of specimens have never been 

 opened. The purchase of the church property will afford some tem- 



[Proc. D. A. S., Vol. VIII. | 39 [Aug. 13, 1901.] 



