The United States National Museum 335 



of the government. Its function is to preserve these treasures 

 perpetually and to administer the collections in such a man- 

 ner as to render them of the highest service to research and 

 education. In pursuance of these ends it exhibits a portion 

 of the collections for public inspection and instruction; an- 

 other portion it assembles in laboratories for the use of 

 investigators. Out of the surplus accumulations it selects 

 series of specimens for distribution to educational institutions, 

 and it encourages publications which will make its treasures 

 known to the world. Of these latter activities it will be 

 necessary to speak somewhat more in detail before closing, 

 and I will return to them presently. It is desirable to 

 point out here the fact, which will become evident to any 

 one upon reflection, that an institution such as the National 

 Museum, with its facilities for investigation and its corps 

 of trained specialists, soon becomes a center of intellectual 

 activity, attracting to itself students and savants, and being 

 called upon to impart technical information and advice. 

 In these lines lies no inconsiderable part of its labor and 

 usefulness. 



It is to be said further that the Museum of to-day, owing in 

 part to a natural development, and in part to the labors of a 

 few advanced leaders, among whom none have rendered more 

 important service than the late Doctor Goode, is no longer con- 

 tent with a passive existence, but strives, by the arrangement 

 of its collections, by its labels, its hand-books and other 

 publications, and its lectures, to impart instruction of a def- 

 inite character and in definite lines. It assembles great col- 

 lections of natural objects and treasures of art not merely to 

 satisfy idle curiosity, but to diffuse knowledge among men. 

 Thus it allies itself to the university and the library, and 

 must be counted among the chief agencies for the spread 

 of culture. 



