Miscellaneous. 73 



"In its present condition, the museum hardly furnishes me the 

 specimens I require for my courses of instruction, for, in conse- 

 quence of the daily accessions which are heaped upon those already 

 crowded in this narrow space, it is often impossible to find what 

 is wanted at the time, and it is out of the question to allow free 

 access to the museum in its present confused state, to any student 

 not already trained in the manipulation of specimens. Had I six 

 or eight rooms of the size of the two now at my disposition, I could 

 at least make a fair beginning of a systematic arrangement, sepa- 

 rate the duplicates from what is to constitute the collection proper, 

 allow free access to the rooms for the public as well as the stu- 

 dents, and thus create a more general interest for this establish- 

 ment, while the students themselves would derive all the advan- 

 tages which such a collection ought to afford them in their studies. 

 At the same time, the separation of the duplicates from the col- 

 lection proper would furnish ample materials for an extensive sys- 

 tem of exchanges with other institutions of the same kind, by which 

 the collection would at once be at least doubled in all its parts, 

 and in some of its departments increased three or four times, and 

 in some, even tenfold. The advantages of such a system of 

 exchanges are very obvious, and my inability from want of room to 

 separate the duplicates from the collection, has already been, for 

 some years past, a check upon its increase. I hope, therefore, that 

 as soon as it is fully understood, some remedy for this evil may be 

 found. 



"But even the possession of an appropriate building wiU 

 not altogether put an end to our difficulties. The collection is 

 already so large that it is impos>ible for me to take charge of it 

 alone, even were I to give all my time to its care. For many 

 years past I have already been under the necessity of having one or 

 two, and at times even three assistants, who, at my private expense^ 

 have been, most of the time, engaged in taking care of the speci- 

 mens. As I have nothing in the world but what I earn daily, such 

 an expenditure has frequently been for me a source of unendurable 

 anxiety, of which I wish to free myself, that I may hereafter devote 

 whatever energy I may possess untrammelled to the higher interests 

 of science. In this perplexity I have thought that a number of 

 curatorships, corresponding to the scholarships now existing in the 

 University, which enable young men, whose private means are 

 insufficient for such an object, to receive a college education, 

 might perhaps be founded by some of our wealthy citizens, which 



