SOME IMPORTANT RESULTS AND PLANS OF THE YEAR. 



Following the establishment of the laboratories and the general 

 collections in the new building interest has centered in the installa- 

 tion of the public exhibitions, and until this large and important 

 task has been essentially completed work in other directions must 

 necessarily be more or less curtailed. It is seldom, if ever, that any 

 museum has been confronted with a similar undertaking of such 

 magnitude and complexity, involving, as it has, the immediate occu- 

 jDation of so extended a floor space, provision for so many and so 

 great a variety of cases, and the preparation, grouping and arrange- 

 ment of the large number of specimens needed for a popular pre- 

 sentation of the natural history branches of the national collec- 

 tions, which are among the richest in the world. Despite, however, 

 the many difficulties that have been encountered, the work has pro- 

 ceeded rapidly and satisfactorily, following a definite scheme which 

 promises results both intelligible and attractive in character. Only 

 a short time remains before the public will gain access to the entire 

 series of halls, but it should be understood that some of the installa- 

 tions will still, be mainly jDrovisional in character, and all will con- 

 tinue subject to additions and improvements, which are inevitable in 

 every museum which keeps abreast of the times. 



All of the subjects that have been transferred to the new building 

 were represented in the older exhibitions, but none of them in a man- 

 ner and few to an extent that was creditable or adequate. This was 

 owing chiefly to the restrictions as to space, which also prevented 

 any concerted action looking to the advance preparation of speci- 

 mens for the purposes in view. As a whole, therefore, the former 

 exhibition collections furnished scarcely more than a nucleus for 

 those demanded by the conditions imposed by the new building. 

 Whatever they contained that was worthy of being kept on display 

 has been utilized, the remainder being mostly returned to the reserve 

 series but in part distributed to schools and colleges. The planning 

 and development of the new exhibition collections, in view of these 

 circumstances, has been mainly incidental to the occupation of the 

 present quarters, in w^hicli alone sfufRcient room could be obtained 

 for overhauling the material and for much of the ordinary work 

 of preparation. It has been the procedure not to await the com- 

 plete arrangement of any of the halls before making them accessible 

 to the public, but to open them successively and as speedily as the 

 conditions in each warranted. The public has, therefore, had the 

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