1868.1 



23 [Custodian. 



a regular Custodian was appointed; for the same reason, the 

 Council found it necessary, Avithin a few months, to engage 

 the services of a permanent assistant, whose labors have 

 already been felt in nearly every department. On similar 

 grounds, I believe that, in a short time, the services of many 

 assistants will be indispensable ; indeed, I am convinced that 

 at least one or two more are needed at the present moment, 

 and that, from this time forward, the greater part of the 

 work of the museum should be done by regular salaried 

 assistants, under the direction of the officers. I am by no 

 means singular in these views ; they are shared by many, if 

 not the majority, of the Council, and have recently found 

 support in the very pertinent expressions of Mr, Bentham, 

 • the learned President of the Linnean Society of London. 



In his last address before that body, he reviews the opera- 

 tions of the American Societies of Natural History, and, 

 referring in the sequel directly to our Institution, says : — 



" In America, as in Europe, ahnost every Natural History 

 Society, small or large, begins by contemplating the forma- 

 tion of a museum, undefined as to limits ; contributions are 

 invited, and donations thankfully received from every quar- 

 ter, without reference to value or practical utility. At first, 

 whilst the Librarian, Secretary, or other manager, takes a 

 personal intel-est in the arrangement and exhibition of the 

 objects received ; when donors can bring their friends to see 

 their contributions displayed on shelves or in glass cases, 

 with their own names pai'aded on the cards ; when most of 

 the members of the Society have the new feeling of a per- 

 sonal share in the ownership of the collections ; when the 

 number of specimens received is blazoned forth as a matter 

 of pride and gratification ; — these incipient museums may 

 have considerable influence in stimulating collectors and 

 observers of nature. But after a time these collections out- 

 grow the Society's means; the specimens which may be 

 required for study or comparison are encumbered by a mass 

 of trash presented by persons who do not know what else to 



