136 THE NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS AT BERLIN. 



of the general staff of the Army — a convention took place of delegates 

 of most of the German States, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, 

 Sweden, Norway, etc., for the Geodetic Survey of the represented 

 States. 



The Institute is divided into four sections, each of which has a chief, 

 one regular and one temporary assistant. The field work of the sum- 

 mer is computed during the winter and published. 



During Baeyer's administration, from 1869 to his death, September 

 10, 1885, the Institute measured the longitude of sixty-three places, 

 obtained longitudinal diftereuces of twenty-one places, and completed 

 the astronomical work of twenty seven stations of the trigonometrical 

 system. The triangles were completed by elaborate work along the 

 Rhine from Belgium to Switzerland and from the Middelrhein through 

 Thuringia to Berlin, etc., and provided with two new base lines, ob- 

 tained by means of measurements with a platin-iridium apparatus by 

 Brunner at Paris. Pendulum observations were made at thirteen 

 places, older ones corrected, new levels obtained from Swinemiinde to 

 Constanz and to the frontier of the Netherlands and of the mean water 

 height of the Baltic Sea. The greater portion of the work has already 

 been published. 



The Museum of Ethnography. — Since the middle of the present century 

 ethnology and anthropology have begun to take definite shape as a 

 science with well-pronounced objects and purposes. 



Of the exotic material which reached Europe as a result of the discov- 

 eries of, and scientific journeys in foreign continents the objects which 

 could be incorporated in natural history collections found their proper 

 places in the zoological or botanical museums, while the objects relat- 

 ing to man did not have any relation to the special studies of the 

 times, and they therefore became more the subject of curiosity and 

 wonder than of earnest consideration. 



These objects generally received a place in the section of foreign 

 curiosities in most the cabinets enjoying a princel}'^ ])rotection, and 

 these sections followed the movement of their respective museums. 



Thus in Berlin, where from the days of the colonial policy of the 

 Great Elector an interest had continued in that direction, and where 

 the " Silver Chamber " of the Royal Castle contained many ethnological 

 articles, which, in the union of the old and the new museum were trans- 

 ferred under the designation of " Ethnographic division. " 



In the new Museum one hall contained the prehistoric collections of 

 Prussia, while three other halls contained everything of an ethnolog- 

 ical character which had found its way thither by donation or purchase. 

 The same arrangement existed in London, Copenhagen, Lyons, Munich, 

 Gottiugen, Wien, etc. 



In the middle of the present century however, when anthropological 

 and ethnological studies experienced that powerful imijulse which has 



