at the disposal of the various Professors connected with the 
Natural History departments, and upon the time they may have 
left from their professorial duties for original research. There 
is no department of the University which depends so little for 
its success upon the resources of the College, as the Natural 
History Department connected with the Museum. Beyond the 
salaries of the Professors and Instructors, there is practically 
nothing which is not provided for by the Museum in the way of 
work-rooms and laboratories. Their care, their heating, and the 
supply of the materials for the students, do not fall upon the 
University ; by far the greater part of the current publications 
in Natural History have for some time past been purchased by 
the Museum, and the publications issued under the auspices of 
the Museum provide the means for making known any investi- 
gation carried on in its laboratories. 
The museum assistant in charge of a special department 
must naturally, if the purpose for which large collections are 
brought together is carried out, spend the greater part of his 
time in preparing them for the specialist who is at some future 
time to avail himself of the treasures brought together for his 
benefit. There is, therefore, the same danger that an eminent 
specialist, after his appointment to the curatorship of a depart- 
ment of a great museum, will find his museum duties so arduous 
as to prevent him, as his colleague in the professorial chair has 
been prevented, by official work, from doing any original work. 
The main point for us and other directors of museums con- 
nected with educational institutions is to settle upon a policy 
which will in the end best promote the growth of a school of 
Natural History, while fostering original research in the occu- 
pants of the professorial chairs and in the assistants of the 
various departments. 
Since the foundation of this Museum the conditions for scien- 
tific research in this country have greatly changed. The general 
government has now undertaken, in connection with the United 
States Coast and Geodetic Survey, with the Geological Survey, 
with the National Museum, and with the United States Fish 
Commission, an amount of scientific investigation in various 
directions which makes it a mere waste of time for those not 
officially connected with these government establishments to 
undertake certain lines of work. Recognizing this, it becomes 
