Custodian.] 24 [May 6, 



do with it, or who have attached a false vahie to the fruits 

 of their own labors; the permanent officer can no longer 

 have time to select for exhibition what is worthy of it, nor to 

 arrange those which might be available for reference; and 

 the Society cannot afford to maintain the necessary staff of 

 keepers, even if they have a building large enough for the 

 purpose. Packages and specimens are, however, still re- 

 ceived, exliibited at meetings to elicit formal thanks, and 

 then consigned to oblivion and decay in cupboards and gar- 

 rets, the members generally taking no further interest in 

 what they can make no further use of If afterwards atten- 

 tion is called to this state of things, it may be felt that some- 

 thing must be done ; the gratuitous aid of patriotic members 

 is called in, and the museum may be more or less purged of. 

 trash, and partially arranged. But gratuitous aid, like volun- 

 tary subscriptions, is generally given on the spur of the 

 moment, and can never be depended on for long-continued 

 and ever-increasing demands ; the collections relapse into a 

 condition worse than the previous one, till at last the Society 

 is obliged to dispose of them as a clog on, instead of an aid 

 to, theu" operations. Such is the history of many a museum 

 I could name, on the continent and at home, including our 

 own ; and such seems destined to be the career, on a large 

 scale, of the Boston Society, notwithstanding its large in- 

 vested funds, if something is not done to give it a permanent 

 independence of individual, disinterested efforts. It is now 

 in the gi-atuitous aid period ; but when its present stores are 

 doubled or quadrupled, when the thirteen or fourteen unpaid 

 Curators must not only give their whole time to it, but 

 require, each of them, one or more assistants to do the work 

 usefully, it will not be done at all ; and unless the Society 

 receives that extensive support which can only be expected 

 from the State, stowage, neglect, and destruction must 

 ensue." 



To these forcible words, no addition of my own is needed. 

 I can only beg that, at an early day, they may receive the 

 attention which their importance demands. 



