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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 738 



president ; J. Pierpont Morgan, first vice-presi- 

 dent; Cleveland H. Dodge, second vice-presi- 

 dent. The following is an abstract of the 

 president's annual report: 



In point of growth, the past year has been 

 the most notable in the history of the institu- 

 tion. Partly aided by the Jesup bequest, the 

 total expenditures were $275,419, or $25,000 

 more than the previous year. Of this the city 

 contributed $159,930.62 and the museum $115,- 

 488.38. In the past eight years the museum 

 has expended directly $932,008 on its explora- 

 tions and collections. The estimated total 

 value of the collections secured during this 

 period by exploration, by purchase, and by gift 

 to the museum is over $2,000,000. For every 

 dollar which has been expended by the city 

 more than a dollar has been added to the 

 enlargement of the collections. 



The present endowment fund, including the 

 bequest of the late President Jesup, is $2,048,- 

 156.61. To keep pace with the very rapid 

 growth of the city and the demands it is 

 making for public scientific education, an en- 

 dowment fund of $5,000,000 is needed. In 

 every part of the world the advance of agricul- 

 ture and commerce and the spread of fire arms 

 is rendering more scarce the objects of natural 

 history of all kinds, including the works of 

 the primitive races of men. It is deemed 

 vitally important to push the explorations of 

 the museum in all parts of the world while it 

 is still possible to secure these fast vanishing 

 works of nature and of primitive man. Dur- 

 ing the year 1908 and at the present time the 

 museum's explorations extend to the Mackenzie 

 Eiver and the shores of the Beaufort Sea, to 

 Alaska, Vancouver, Alberta and Saskatchewan, 

 the west coast of Hudson Bay and western 

 Labrador; in the United States parties have 

 been spread in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, 

 North Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado and Flor- 

 ida, also in Central America, and in the south 

 to Nicaragua, the West Indies and Bahama 

 Islands ; in Asia special agents are working in 

 Kashmir, China and Corea; among the islands 

 of the Pacific the museum is working in the 

 Philippines, the Solomon Islands, in Tahiti, 

 New Zealand, the South Shetland Islands and 

 in Kerguelan Island. 



Popular education has been given a stronger 

 impulse than ever before. The museimi was 

 open free to the public every day of the year 

 and on 179 evenings. The gross attendance 

 last year was 1,043,582, in large part due to 

 the exceptional interest in the International 

 Tuberculosis Exhibition. The attendance at 

 public afternoon and evening lectures reached 

 a total of 82,718. The number of children 

 visiting the museum in lecture classes was 

 10,425. The number of children who were 

 especially guided through the Tuberculosis 

 Exhibition and who listened to lectures on 

 simple means of prevention of this disease was 

 41,627. These children came from all the high 

 schools of Greater New York and from many 

 distant towns and cities. In the schools of 

 the city 575,801 children were reached by the 

 system of circulating museums. 



During the coming year the principal new 

 exhibitions which will be developed are espe- 

 cially the Children's Museum, the Museum for 

 the Blind, the Philippine Exhibition and the 

 Congo Exhibition presented by King Leopold 

 of Belgium. This last is the most complete 

 collection outside of that which is to be seen 

 in the Congo Museum near Brussels. Grow- 

 ing out of the Tuberculosis Exhibition imme- 

 diate steps will be taken to make a special 

 exhibition of the life and habits of the smaller 

 organisms in relation to health and disease. 



During the past year the scientific staS of 

 the museum has been strengthened by the 

 addition of Professor Bashford Dean, a 

 traveler and ichthyologist of international 

 reputation, who has been placed in charge of 

 the fishes and reptiles. Professor Henry E. 

 Crampton, also of Columbia University, has 

 been appointed head curator of the department 

 of invertebrate zoology to succeed Professor 

 William Morton Wheeler, who has resigned to 

 accept a professorship in Harvard University. 

 Dr. Frank E. Lutz has been called from the 

 Carnegie Institution of Experimental Evolu- 

 tion to take special charge of the exhibition of 

 microorganisms in relation to public health.- 

 Dr. Alexander Petrunkevitch has been ap- 

 pointed honorary curator of arachnida, and 

 Aarson L. Treadwell, of Vassar College, has 

 been appointed honorary curator of annulates. 



