APRIL 19, 1901.] 
nucleus around which the institution is to 
grow, lines of investigation and research 
which ultimately return their products to 
the museum as permanent records of the 
work accomplished, and thus prove sources 
of continual and valuable additions. 
The museum in itself forms the basis for 
a progressive extension of morphological 
investigation. It accomplishes this in sev- 
eral directions. In the first place, the gen- 
eralization of the structures presented by 
different types, which marks the central 
purpose of the institution, forms a circle 
from whose circumference at any point the 
line of a new and more extended inyesti- 
gation can be drawn. In fact, if the mu- 
seum is to grow and develop according to 
its original intent, it is requisite that such 
enlargement should take place. 
As the museum grows the vital questions 
of derivation and ancestry of forms must 
be investigated on the hand of constantly 
increasing material, which will open up 
points of view heretofore unattained. With 
each new accession to any group the capac- 
ity of the museum for extension of original 
thought and investigation increases. Any 
research opens at some point in its course 
side lines which may be of the utmost 
value. It is here that the immediate possi- 
bility of serial comparisons on a large 
scale afforded by the museum becomes of 
the greatest importance. The museum 
represents in its complete condition a mor- 
phological reference depository. It func- 
tions in connection with the morphological 
library, but it possesses the inestimable ad- 
vantage of presenting the actual objects in- 
stead of plates and descriptions, often at 
variance with each other, incorrect and in- 
complete in detail and failing to elucidate 
just the question which it is desired to 
solve. 
In this sense the museum fulfills its 
highest functions, stimulating and directly 
promoting investigation and rendering 
SCIENCE. 
607 
such investigation fruitful and effective 
by contributing the series necessary for 
comparison and reference. 
It may hardly be necessary to touch on 
the effect of this work on those who are en- 
gaged in it. It attracts men whom the 
university is glad to number among its stu- 
dents and graduates, and who in other 
institutions—as teachers and investigators 
—will reflect credit on their training. If 
from among the growing numbers of our 
medical students even a few are made to 
develop into scientific workers, I should yet 
hold those few—in their prospective value 
to the university and to science—as balane- 
ing the long listof medical graduates whom 
we annually send out at our commence- 
ment. 
Ill, ‘RELATION OF THE MUSEUM TO OTHER 
DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY, 
There is scarcely a department of biologi- 
eal or medical instruction and investigation 
which is not in intimate relation with some 
portion of morphology, and which will not 
benefit by a connection with the museum 
and by access to its collections. 
In physiology, the science dealing with 
the function of the machine which itself is 
the object of the study in morphology, the 
connection is obvious. But the tremendous 
advantage which will accrue to each of 
these sciences by closer mutual association, 
through the link of the comparative ana- 
tomical museum, can scarcely be estimated. 
Morphology offers in the series of modifi- 
cations which different forms present in 
their structure, a field of nearly unlimited 
choice for the interpretation of the physi- 
ologist. The physiological study of an 
organ ina certain form—as the dog—may 
lead the investigator to certain results 
which apply in the first plan to the species 
examined. If now the morphology of the 
organ is accessible to the physiological in- 
vestigator not only in a complete series of 
