STUDIES ON MUSEUMS ANJ) KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 591 

 41. NOTES ON VARIOUS MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES IN PARIS. 



KTHNOGRAPIIIC MUSEUM IX THE TKOCADEKO. 



I wsis coiiipellod to visit this niusciini twice, since in tlie iihsencc of 

 the director I could not obtain access to all its departments on the 

 occasion of uia' tirst visit. Since 18S5), when I saw it, it had not 

 improved in its administration, thoug-h it had increased much in its 

 possessions. The Asiatic collections have been removed and are now 

 exhibited only in the Miisce Guimct which, since that time, has come 

 into the possession of the Government. The halls of the Trocadero 

 (formerly the Exposition Palace) are not well adapted for this collec- 

 tion. The cases are of the most primitive kind (mostl}^ old exposition 

 cases), the method of installation is no less so, consisting in part of 

 trophies on the walls; the labeling- i.s incomplete and intended more 

 for the general public. The collection is not much cared for, in short, 

 it has fallen behind the modern museum technic. A lack of suflS- 

 cient means is the cause for this. How surprising it is that the 

 enlightened French Government is so parsimonious in this respect! 

 Paris, which in many respects surpasses all ought not to retrograde 

 in the matter of ethnography, but now a great efl'ort would be neces- 

 sary to bring the collection up to modern standards. The sVnall num- 

 ber of officials in charge of this rather extensive collection bears no 

 relation to its present needs; on this account, also, onl}^ one of the 

 various halls is opened at a time, and therefore no adequate publica- 

 tion of the valuable materials can be made. The annual expenditure 

 is only $4,500. 



GUIMET MUSEUM (PLACE D'jENA, ]). 



This is now a Government collection. This nmseum 1 was also com- 

 pelled to visit twice for the same reason that I did the Trocadero. On 

 account of lack of asi^istants it opens its halls only intermittently, and 

 in the absence of tlie dii'ector admission can not be had to the closed 

 portion. The plan of Mr. (iruimet, to establish a museum of compara- 

 tive religions, has been limited to Asiatic religions and extended, on 

 the other hand, to cover the general ethnography of Asia. In respect 

 to east Asiatic religions, the museum is over rich and suffers from 

 lack of space; in view, however, of the ditliculty of extending the 

 already considerable building, it being hemmed in by other structures, 

 a serious problem is presented — certainl}- an instructive circumstance 

 for the consideration of those contemplating the erection of new muse- 

 ums. Although the l)uilding was erected for the purpose, it does 

 not meet the demands of modern museum construction, either in the 

 relative position of the several halls to each other, which are intlu- 

 enced by its triangular ground plan, or in respect to lighting, though, 

 notwithstanding all this, it has many good features. (Photographs 

 were unobtainable.) I nmst pass over here the history, the contents, 



