JUNE 28, 1901.] 
The collections of the Army Medical 
Museum have a world-wide reputation and 
contain a great quantity of unique and valu- 
able material. There are large collections 
of living animals at the Zoological Park; 
and there is a fine series, illustrating fish 
culture, at the Fish Commission building. 
The museum of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment contains valuable material, especially 
the working collections of the different di- 
visions, and the Botanic Gardens are ca- 
pable of great development under scientific 
direction. To the student interested in the 
development of American inventive genius 
and the industries represented by patents 
the collection of models and drawings in 
the Patent Office offers exceptional oppor- 
tunities. - Mention should also be made of 
the collections of apparatus of various 
kinds in Government laboratories, and of 
the illustrations of the evolution of appa- 
ratus in the National Museum and Smith- 
sonian Institution. ‘ 
In art, while the collections are not so 
large as in other lines, yet there is a collec- 
tion of excellent quality in the Corcoran Gal- 
lery of Art, which maintains a free school. 
In this school day and night classes are 
taught the arts of drawing and painting, 
free of tuition fees or charge of any kind. 
Up to the close of 1899, 844 pupils had re- 
ceived instruction in the day school and 
1,483 in the night school. 
The Naval Observatory has a good 
equipment, including a chart and a chro- 
nometer depot, an extensive collection of 
instruments used in taking astronomic 
photographs, a fine telescope and transit 
instruments used in carrying on its routine 
work. 
The newly created National Bureau of 
Standards is to have buildings and a fine 
equipment of all necessary apparatus. 
When fully developed it will be second to 
none in the character and value of its scien- 
tific and practical work. ‘The functions of 
SCIENCE. 
1013 
this bureau are defined in the organic act as 
follows : 
The functions of the bureau shall consist in the 
custody of the standards ; the comparison of the stand- 
ards used in scientific investigations, engineering, 
manufacturing, commerce and educational institu- 
tions with the standards adopted or recognized by the 
Government; the construction, when necessary, of 
standards, their multiples and subdivisions; the 
testing and calibration of standard measuring appa- 
ratus ; the solutions of problems which arise in con- 
nection with standards ; the determination of phys- 
ical constants and the properties of materials, when 
such data are of great importance to scientific or 
manufacturing interests and are not to be obtained of 
sufficient accuracy elsewhere. 
Law and Diplomacy.—The State Depart- 
ment has accumulated a valuable library 
relating to international law. The law 
library of Congress contains more than 50,- 
000 volumes exclusively legal in character, 
and accommodations are provided for stu- 
dents who wish to use it. The School of 
Diplomacy of Columbian University is one 
of the unique features of the educational 
organizations of Washington. The Su- 
preme Court of the United States and the 
Court of Claims bring together the foremost » 
American lawyers. There is also the Su- 
preme Court of the District of Columbia, 
which has the common-law, equity, and 
probate jurisdiction of State courts, besides 
that of the circuit and district courts of the 
United States. 
There are, of course, unequaled opportu- 
nities for studying the development of leg- 
islation and for meeting the leading states- 
men and public men of the country. 
Medicine —The Army Medical Museum 
has one of the finest collections in exist- 
ence of recent pathologic specimens. These, 
taken with the library of the Surgeon-Gen- 
eral’s Office, in the same building, afford a 
rare opportunity for the medical student. 
In the adjoining National Museum there is 
a most complete collection illustrating the 
materia medica of the United States and of 
foreign countries. There are also several 
