SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1883. 



THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 

 II. 



In a former number we reviewed some of 

 the important principles of general classifica- 

 tion suggested by !Mr. Goode's plan of tlie 

 National museum. We resume the topic to 

 discuss some of the salient points in the minor 

 groupings of the same scheme. 



Section iii., 'natural resources,' i.e., 'force 

 and matter,' appears to be out of place. 

 Certainly these are primary subjects ; and we 

 cannot, as a merely practical matter, under- 

 stand why the study of ph3'sics and chemistry 

 is placed after that of the earth, which is to be 

 treated of earlier under the separate heads of 

 'cosmology.' 'geology,' 'physiography,' etc., 

 in section ii. Imagine a person trying to learn 

 something of the relations of force and matter 

 to the history of the development of the earth 

 and its topography as it now appears, and hav- 

 ing in view the applications of these studies to 

 the explanation of some of man's migrations or 

 racial differences, or to an}' other anthropologi- 

 cal problem which might reach back to primary 

 connections. Is it supposable that his inquiries 

 would be facilitated by placing the collection 

 in such relations to each other as completely 

 to cover up and invert their natural relations 

 and logical order? Or is it probable that the 

 mind of the visitor would be more enlightened 

 by getting his information about the relations 

 of the elements after he had passed through 

 celestial and terrestrial physics and chemistry, 

 and all the applications of these to the history 

 of the development of the earth ? 



We can readily picture to ourselves the con- 

 fusion which might be generated in his mind, 

 and the discovery he might make of the neces- 

 sitj' of reviewing all he had passed over before ; 

 but we fail in attempts to imagine the advan- 

 tages of this inversion. We cannot, therefore, 

 understand the considerations which induced 



No. 26. - 1883. 



Mr. Goodc to adopt this method of arranging 

 the sections, nor why he did not place natural 

 resources first, and man last, in his natural 

 history division ; for that is what the first three 

 sections really constitute when taken together. 

 They would then have stood in approximately 

 natural, and certainly respectably logical, rela- 

 tions to each other. 



We should then have had in section i., phys- 

 ics, chemistrj', and all the mineralogical, botan- 

 ical, and zoological collections as introductions 

 to the study of section ii., where the princi- 

 ples of science learned in passing them in r<3- 

 view would be found of essential assistance in 

 understanding the earth, with all the topics of 

 cosmolog3', geolog\", etc., whether presented, 

 as Mr. Goode proposes, solely as man's abode, 

 or in its more natural relation to the universe 

 as a planetary body. The last seems to us the 

 preferable because more natural mode of pres- 

 entation ; and the author shows this by bring- 

 ing in eosmolog}-. This, if at all effective, 

 must show that the earth is a planet primarily 

 uninhabitable by man, and evolved without ref- 

 erence to his existence, conducted in its career 

 by cosmic forces uninfluenced by his presence, 

 and, in all likelihood, destined to become unfit, 

 in course of time, for his existence. 



After the earth as man's abode had been 

 passed through by the visitor, we could readily 

 conceive of his being all the better prepared 

 for the understanding of section iii., ' the nat- 

 ural history of man and his adjuncts of all 

 kinds.' 



Fasaing over section iv. (• the exploitative 

 industries') and section v. ('the elaborative 

 industries'), which together constitute what 

 appears to be a second grand division of the 

 museum representing the purely industrial side, 

 we come to section vi. In this section are in- 

 cluded foods, and drinks in their final stages 

 of preparation for the use of man, narcotics, 

 dress, buildings, furniture, he'atiug and illumi- 

 nation, niodicinc, hygiene, transportation. All 



