Mat 23, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



479 



queiitly, while these noble bequests swell the 

 general endowment to more than $3,000,000, 

 an additional $2,000,000 is required to put 

 the museum on a secure financial footing for 

 its general purposes. 



The munificent bequest of ilrs. Russell 

 Sage is by far the largest which the museum 

 has received for its general purposes. It was 

 accompanied by the following provision in 

 Mrs. Sage's will: 



It is my desire that each religious, educational or 

 charitable corporation which may receive a share 

 of my residuary estate shall use the whole or part 

 of the legacy received by it for some purpose which 

 will commemorate the name of my husband, but I 

 simply express this as a desire and do not impose 

 it as a condition of my gift. 



The institution should be maintained in the 

 future in the spirit of the contract of 1878 

 between the museimi and the city, namely, 

 that the city pay for the operating expenses, 

 while the trustees pay for the collections and 

 all the scientific work. In recent years 

 the trustees have drawn so largely upon their 

 own funds for maintenance purposes that the 

 growth of the scientific collections and ex- 

 hibitions has been held back, with the result 

 that the people of the City of New York are 

 the ultimate sufferers. Through a like policy, 

 the New York Public Library and the Metro- 

 politan Museum of Art are making similar 

 inroads on the income from their endowment 

 funds to meet current expenses, instead of 

 purchasing books, pictures and works of art; 

 in the end this means the deprivation of the 

 people. 



The expenditures for the maintenance of 

 the museum by the people have increased far 

 less rapidly than the expenditures of the city 

 departments under political management: 

 while the per capita cost of the city govern- 

 ment has increased more than 30 per cent, in 

 the last twenty years, the per capita cost of 

 maintenance of the museum has decreased 3 

 per cent. Inasmuch as the work of the mu- 

 seum for the education of the people is in no 

 sense a luxury, it is reasonable to expect that 

 maintenance costs shall increase proportion- 

 ately with the costs of the city government. 



In general we may regard the reduction of 

 tile maintenance appropriation for the mu- 

 seum as in reality a reduction of expenditures 

 for education, and any city with the wealth 

 of New York ought to provide liberally for 

 education. At the present time the taxpayers 

 of the City of New York are paying less than 

 one third of the annual cost of the American 

 Museum and its work. If the taxpayers 

 really understood the situation, they would 

 support the city government in granting 

 larger maintenance appropriations. 



Although the field exploration of the mu- 

 seum was in general suspended until after the 

 war, it was found exfjcdient to continue on a 

 small scale certain explorations in China as 

 well as in various parts of North and South 

 America. 



The year 1918, however, has been one of 

 the most active in the entire history of the 

 museum in research and in publication, which 

 is mainly supported through the generous pro- 

 vision of the Morris K. Jesup Fund. This 

 fund now amounts to $6,672,000. 



In zoology, ilr. Roy C. Andrews sailed for 

 China on June 28 to take up the work of the 

 Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition. Mr. 

 Andrews will make studies and collections in 

 the Gobi Desert, a region little known to the 

 naturalist. The Third Asiatic Zoological Ex- 

 pedition left San Francisco on July 27, under 

 the leadership of Mr. Paul J. Rainey, accom- 

 panied by Mr. Edmund Heller as natiiralist; 

 the entire expense of the expedition was borne 

 by Mr. Rainey. 



In anthropology. Mr. Earl H. Morris, as- 

 sisted by Mr. B. T. B. Hyde, continued the 

 excavation of the Indian ruins at Aztec, New 

 Mexico. These ruins are yielding valuable 

 collections and historic data, which make this 

 piece of research work one of the most im- 

 portant that the museiun has ever under- 

 taken in anthropology. These explorations 

 are made possible through the contributions 

 of Mr. Archer M. Huntington. Mr. Leslie 

 Spier made archeological explorations in Ari- 

 zona, visiting the Fort Apache Indian Reser- 

 vation in the White Mountains, and the Rio 

 Verde Valley. He also visited the Havasupai 



