108 TAANSACTIONS OF THE 



when Becquerel was reproached with his neglect of German elec- 

 tricians in his work on electricity, he exclaimed, with a nonchal- 

 ance considered typical of the Academy, "Must one know all 

 languages to write a book ?" 



Museums. • 



Around the American University of Science, Literature, and 

 the Arts, would cluster scientific, historical, and art collections of 

 every sort : Museums, libraries, galleries of the mechanic arts, 

 and of the fine arts. Our museums of Natural History, even 

 though most prized for their scientific value, have grown up un- 

 der the views which prevailed in past time, and are adapted to a 

 past state of the science. They have been modified and enlarged, 

 it is true, to endeavor to bring them up with the science of the 

 day, but the plan or idea upon which they are based still shows 

 itself They are collections of specimens showing the diversities 

 and not the analogies of nature. Separate museums of compara- 

 tive, anatomy took their rise from the researches of Cuvier and his 

 followers. So the progress of geology gave rise to museums of 

 fossils. So also the discoveries of Agassiz in embryology will 

 produce museums devoted to this branch. But these are frag-' 

 mentary establishments. A master of the subject has said : " "What 

 we now need is a museum in which the various relations that link 

 together different groups of animals shall be exhibited at a glance, 

 where the anatomical preparations illustrating their structure shall 

 be placed side by side with perfect specimens showing their exter- 

 nal forms; where the remains of extinct forms shall fill the gaps 

 existing between the living, and where specimens of the embryos 

 shall illustrate the succession of changes all these types undergo, 

 and the correspondence between the development and the succes- 

 sive appearance of the representatives of past ages." 



If tlie isolated efforts of those devoted to cultivation of science 

 in our day could be brought into combination, such a museum 

 could readily be produced, and the country in which such is first 

 established will take the lead in the future progress of natural 

 history. What an incentive to American exertion, to lead in sucli 

 a race ! Will not private munificence come forward to render 

 such a thing possible 1 



