Febkuaey 21, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



289 



day so largely lacks, some relationship to the 

 psychical needs and attitudes of those under in- 

 struction. John Dewey. 

 University of Chicago, February 6, 1896. 



DOES THE PEIVATE COLLECTOR MAKE THE BEST 

 MUSEUM ADMINISTRATOE ? 



The concluding portion, section K, of Dr. 

 Goode's recent paper on the Classification of 

 Museums, is devoted to a consideration of 

 private cabinets and collectors, and to the major 

 portion of the propositions therein laid down all 

 can heartily subscribe. There is, however, one 

 among them to which I can not fully assent, at 

 least so far as museums of natural history are 

 concerned, and that is, that "The person who 

 has formed a private collection can most suc- 

 cessfully manage one for the use of the public." 



It must be confessed that this doubt largely 

 rests upon theory, but an acquaintance with 

 some collectors makes it seem probable that it is, 

 after all, well founded. 



A considerable amount of collecting is done 

 with no purpose in view other than that of ac- 

 cumulating specimens, but, on the other hand, a 

 private collection may be formed with a definite 

 purpose and along certain lines. In the one 

 case the collector certainly shows no unusual 

 fitness for a position in a museum, while in the 

 other he is interested in his collection for what 

 he can get out of it himself and not for the 

 benefit it may be to others, and this is exactly 

 the opposite view to that which should be held 

 by an officer in a public museum. This is not 

 saying that such is the point of view universally 

 assumed by museum curators, but it is certain 

 that the success of a public museum depends on 

 the extent to which it is adopted. Again a 

 private collector is, from the nature of the case, 

 apt to be one-sided, to lay too much stress on 

 one group to the exclusion of others, and thus 

 to lack the evenness of balance which should 

 be one of the characteristics of the ' museum 

 man.' This one-sidedness frequently takes the 

 form of undue preference for rare or costly 

 specimens, attaching an undue importance to 

 the specimens themselves rather than what is 

 to be got out of them. 



Moreover the care and arrangement of a pri- 

 vate study series and of a public study series, 



and, above all of an exhibition series, are en- 

 tirely different things and require a totally dif- 

 ferent treatment. A private series may be ill- 

 arranged and poorly labeled, but the owner 

 knows each specimen, its history and where- 

 abouts. A public study series should, on the 

 contrary, be so arranged and so labeled that any 

 student may consult it and make notes upon it, 

 while in an exhibition series the specimens 

 should be so chosen that, while each conveys 

 some information, all form a harmonious whole. 



A private collector may know his own needs, 

 but he would not know or would not care for 

 the needs of the public, and he would carry to 

 a public museum the taste for accumulation, or 

 for research, which probably led to the forma- 

 tion of his own collection. Accumulation is a 

 good thing, but it needs to be properly directed 

 in order to be of public service, while there is 

 probably no greater drawback to the public 

 efiiciency of a museum officer than too great 

 devotion to original research, as this leads not 

 only to lack of care for material which has 

 served its turn, but to a very decided lack of 

 interest in the public which must be reached 

 through the exhibition series. 



This criticism is by no means to be construed 

 into a criticism of the private collector; the 

 value of his work and the influence of his col- 

 lections are immense ; it is simply a denial of the 

 proposition that because a man has formed a 

 private cabinet he is therefore best fitted to ad- 

 minister a public museum. 



F. A. Lucas. 



Washington, D. C. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 Lehrhuch der Entivicklungsgeschichte des Mensch- 



en und der Wirbelthiere. Oscar Hertwig. 



Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1895. Pp. xvi + 612. 



This excellent work now appears in a fifth 

 edition, in which many improvements have 

 been made. Prof. Hertwig is especially dis- 

 tinguished both for his comprehension of the 

 problems of morphology and for the lucidity of 

 his explanations, so that his text-book has long 

 been accepted as a valuable treatise both for 

 students and for advanced workers, and has 

 been accorded the distinction of translation 

 into several languages. A very admirable 



