REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETAKY. 19 



institutions and their visitors tlirougbout the country, through the dis- 

 tribution of the duplicate specimens in the Museum, wliicli are made 

 up into sets, accurately named, and distributed to schools and museums. 



In the next annual report it will l>c shown how many hundred thou- 

 sands of objects have been thus distributed during the past twenty 

 years. Every museum in the United States has profited in this way, 

 and by its system of excliange the ^Museum has, while enriching itself, 

 contributed largely to the stores of every important scientific museum 

 in the world. 



Not only are specimens thus sent out, but aid is rendered in other 

 ways. Within the last year not less than forty local museums in the 

 United States were supplied with working idans of cases in use in the 

 Museum, and similar sets of plans have been supplied within the past 

 few years to national museums in other countries. 



Not only do the people of the country at large profit by the work of 

 the Smithsonian, as made available to local institutions, but also to a 

 very considerable extent directly and personally. 



The curator of each department in the Museum is expected to be an 

 authority in his own line of work, and the knowledge of the whole staff 

 of experts is thus j)laced without cost at the service of every citizen. 



It is much to be regretted that many specialists, intent chiefly upon 

 the study of certain scientific problems in which they individually are 

 absorbed, are disposed to neglect the claims of the educated public to 

 the enjoyment and instruction which museums afford. They do not 

 hesitate to say that scientific nuiseums should be administered for the 

 benefit solely of persons engaged in research. Such men would find no 

 welcome among us. 



At a recent meeting of professional naturalists an eminent investi- 

 gator in natural science publicly expressed his opposition, to exhibiting 

 certain scientific collections to "the gaping clowns who form the 

 majority of the visitors to our museums." Such a spirit defeats its 

 own i)urposes and such a remark deserves rebuke. The experience of 

 Europe with its magnificent educational museums and the history of 

 the several expositions in the United States should be quite sufficient 

 to satisfy any one who has studied the matter, that the museum is an 

 educational power of no slight potenc}'. 



The venerable director of the South Kensington Museum, the late Sir 

 Philip CunlifieOwen, speaking from an experience of thirty-five years, 

 not only in his own establishment, but in the work of building up the 

 score of sister museums now under its wing, located in the various 

 provincial towns of Great Britain, remarked to the writer: 



We educate our workiug peiiple iu the public schools, and give theui a love tor 

 refiued and beautiful objects, and a desire for information. They leave school, enter 

 town life, see onlj- dirty streets and monotonous rows of buildings, and have no way 

 to gratify the tastes -which they have been forced to ac(iuire. It is as much the 

 duty of the Government to provide them with museums and libraries for their higher 

 education as it is to establish schools for their primary instructiou. 



