608 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



refer tlie kind reader to the several chapters. On the other hand, not- 

 withstanding- all the good that I saw, the opinion forces itself upon 

 me— and 1 do not wish to conceal it — that, taken as a whole, the art of 

 constructing natural science museums is still in its infancy. In most 

 cases such museums are defectively planned, and it is only exception- 

 ally that we meet with beginnings that may be considered as the dawn 

 of a new era in this field of human endeavor. Then, too, the art of the 

 interior installation of such museums is, in general, still in a very bad 

 state. The principal reasons for this appear to me to be that, on the 

 one hand, whatever is displayed in a prominent locality is imitated 

 without judgment and without wishing at all to better it, and on the 

 other hand, attempts are made quite independently, without any effort 

 to profit by the experience of others in such matters. In most cases, 

 also, plans for natural science museums are carried out too rapidly. 

 A new building is determined upon, money is available for its con- 

 struction, and then sufficient time is not devoted to properly prepar- 

 ing the plans in advance — presently a plan is selected and all of 

 its shortcomings must be taken with it. With regard to the interior 

 furnishing, however, the conditions are still worse. Usually the build- 

 ing has cost more mone}^ than was anticipated and economy must then 

 be exercised in the interior furnishing. Although this is no less essen- 

 tial, yet much too little importance is attached nearly everywhere to 

 the interior installations, and far too slight deliberation is bestowed 

 upon them. 



I am convinced that the natural science museum of the distant 

 future will be very different from that of the present, often very 

 inadequate, attempts. On the other hand, art museums have already 

 advanced to a much higher stage of progress, due perhaps to the fact 

 that their contents are not so varied and that consequently the problems 

 to be solved do not present such difficulties. 



