August 23, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



207 



or extending its cabinet. The success of 

 the Museums Association in Great Britain 

 is another evidence of the growing popu- 

 larity of the museum idea, and similar or- 

 ganizations must of necessity soon be formed 

 in every civilized country. 



2 . "With this increase of interest there has 

 been a corresponding improvement in mu- 

 seum administration. More men of ability 

 and originality are engaging in this vi^ork, 

 and the results of this are manifest in all its 

 branches. 



The museum recluse, a type which had 

 .many representatives in past years, among 

 them not a few eminent specialists, is be- 

 coming much less common, and this change 

 is not to be regretted. The general use of 

 specimens in class-room instruction and, still 

 more, the general introduction of laboratory 

 work in the higher institutions, has brought 

 an army of teachers into direct relations 

 with museum administi'ation, and much 

 support and improvement has resulted. 



3. Museum administration has become 

 a profession, and the feeling is growing- 

 more and more general that it is one in 

 which talents of a high order can be utilized. 

 It is essential to the future development of 

 the museum that the best men should be 

 secured for this kind of work, and to this 

 end it is important that a lofty professional 

 standard should be established. 



B. Public Ajypreciation of the Material Value 



of Collections. 



1. The museum of nature or art is one of 

 the most valuable material possessions of a 

 nation or a city. It is, as has well been 

 said, ' the people's vested fund.' It brings 

 not only world-wide reputation, but many 

 visitors and consequent commercial advan- 

 tage. "What Alpine scenery is to Switzer- 

 land, museums are to many neighboring na- 

 tions. Some one declares that the Venus 

 of Melos has attracted more wealth to Paris 

 than the Queen of Sheba brought to King 



Solomon, and that but for the possession of 

 their collections (which are intrinsically so 

 much treasure) Eome and Florence would 

 be impoverished towns. 



This is tlioroughly understood by the 

 rulers of modern Italy. "We are told that 

 the first act of Garibaldi after he had en- 

 tered Naples in 1860 was to proclaim the 

 city of Pompeii the property of the nation, 

 and to increase the appropriation for exca- 

 vations so that these might be carried on 

 with greater activity. He appreciated tlie 

 fact that a nation which owns a gold mine 

 ought to work it, and that Pompeii could be 

 made for Naples and for Italy a source of 

 wealth more productive than the gold mines 

 of Sacramento. If capital is an accumula- 

 tion of labor, as economists say, works of 

 art which are the result of the highest type 

 of labor must be capital of the most pro- 

 ductive character. A country which has 

 rich museums attracts to itself the money 

 of travelers, even though it may have no 

 other source of wealth. If, besides, the 

 populace is made to understand the inter- 

 est which is possessed by their treasures of 

 art they are inspired with the desire to pro- 

 duce others of the same kind, and so, since 

 labor increases capital, there is infinite pos- 

 sibility for the growth of national prosperity. 

 It is evident then that too much money can- 

 not be devoted to the formation of museums, 

 to their maintenance, and to the education 

 of the people by this means. 



Suggestive in this same connection is 

 this remark of Sir "William Flower to the 

 effect that the largest museum yet erected, 

 with all its internal fittings, has not cost 

 so much as a single fully equipped line of 

 battleships, which in a few years may 

 be either at the bottom of the sea or so ob- 

 solete in construction as to be worth no 

 more than the material of which it is made. 



This principle was well stated more than 

 half a century ago by Edward Edwards in 

 his treatise on the ' Administrative Econ- 



