REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 7 



The necessity of eariug for Government collections of many kinds 

 o-ives as already stated, a very wide scope to the Musenm, and im- 

 presses npon it characteristics scarcely to be found in any other similar 

 organization. What is here brought together in two buildings has its 

 counterpart in England, Germany, France, and other European coun- 

 tries in groups of museums, each with a limited and well-deflned scope. 

 It is unnecessary to enter a plea for the right of a, national musenm 

 to exist. Its establishment is not forced upon the country. It grows 

 up unsolicited as a consequence of the activities of an enlightened Gov- 

 ernment. Tlirough a thousand channels materials for the formation of 

 a museum come h.to the possession of the Government. It can not be 

 questioned that it is in every way most desirable that these should be 

 brought together in one place, wiiere they can be classified and ar- 

 ranged for examination and study. A museum formed in this manner, 

 however, suffers sooner or later from the immense accumulation of 

 objects of the same kind in certain directions and from deficiencies in 

 others. It has been so in the case of the National Museum. At the 

 outset no addition was unwelcome, and the expectation that all impor- 

 tant deficiencies would be supplied might properly be indulged in. As 

 the years have passed, however, it has become more and more appar- 

 ent that many of these deficiencies would only be made good by the 

 purchase of the necessary objects, and the importance of increased ap- 

 propriations for the purchase of collections and single objects to com- 

 plete the various series in the Museum is very strongly felt. 



In its present condition the Museum may be likened to a book from 

 which pages here and there have been omitted, so that the narrative is 

 disjointed and incomplete. There are instances in this country m 

 which more money is expended for the improvement of private muse- 

 ums than is expended for the National Museum. In certain museums 

 of Europe more money is expended annually in purchases than is rep- 

 sented by the entire appropriations for the National Museum. The 

 officers of the Museum have repeatedly suffered the chagrin of being 

 compelled to refuse the offer of specimens necessary to complete the 

 collections, and t.> see them pass into the hands of private institutions 

 in this country or the government museums in Europe, 



B.-ORGANIZATION AND SCOPE OF THE MUSEUM. 



The National Musenm is under the direction of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, which is governed by an establishment consisting of th& 

 President of the United States and his Cabinet, the Commissioner of 

 Patents, and the Board of Eegents, which latter is composed ot the 

 Vice-President, Chief Justice of the United States, three members of 

 the Senate, three members of the House of Representatives, and six 

 other citizens not members of Congress, two of wliom ai^e residents of 

 the city of Washington, 



