Mat 10, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



745 



head the list. The name still is Bhynchagrotis 

 Smith; but any student who attempts to 

 identify the Smith genus as it stands now, 

 from the Smith description as it was written, 

 will inevitably fail to understand how Smith 

 could have written up such an inapplicable 

 set of characters for his genus. My genus no 

 longer has any existence, though the name 

 proposed by me remains to represent a set of 

 characters specified by Hampson. 



It does seem to me as if, when an author 

 has recorded a given set of characters as repre- 

 senting his conception of a genus, any arbi- 

 trary rule that limits his generic term to any 

 species or set of si)ecies that does not include 

 that combination is both illogical and un- 

 scientific. It seems like holding to the letter 

 to avoid an inquiry into the spirit of truth. 

 John B. Smith 



New Bkcnswick, N. J., 

 April 22, 1907 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXHIBITS IN THE AMERI- 

 CAN MUSEUM OP NATURAL HISTORY 



To THE Editor of Science : The communica- 

 tion in your issue of April 12, by Dr. Dorsey 

 on ' The Anthropological Exhibits in the 

 American Museum of Natural History' sug- 

 gests the important question: For whom 

 should the public exhibits in such museums 

 be designed? Should they be for scientists, 

 for college students or for the general public? 



The needs of these three groups are so very 

 different that it is quite evident that the same 

 style of exhibit can not be satisfactory to all. 

 If designed for the public the exhibit should 

 come within its comprehension and should 

 lead in a definite manner to a general appre- 

 ciation of some of the more important features 

 of the subject; for it is to be presumed that 

 the public will see little beyond that which is 

 prepared for them. If they are to obtain 

 definite ideas it is best that the exhibit aim 

 to impart a limited number of fundamentals 

 rather than lose itself in a multitude of de- 

 tails. In other words, effectiveness is de- 

 pendent on concentration in aim and in limit- 

 ing the number of objects shown. It is un- 

 avoidable that such an exhibit should partake 

 somewhat of the character of a text-book 



illustrated by specimens, though it is prob- 

 ably advisable to disguise as far as possible the 

 mechanism of this; for people like better to 

 think they are discovering facts and prin- 

 ciples than that these are forced upon them. 

 However, if any considerable portion of the 

 public is to be guided aright it is necessary 

 that the text-book character of the labels shall 

 be at least pronounced enough to be discern- 

 ible to the trained specialist and consequently 

 to be offensively kindergartenish to him if he 

 imagines that the exhibit was made for him. 



An exhibit designed for students having 

 had the advantages of text-book and oral in- 

 struction would needs be more advanced, less 

 explanatory, and with a greater wealth of 

 detail. 



For an advanced specialist an exhibit of all 

 the material in the museum, each specimen 

 accompanied by its field label, would probably 

 be as satisfactory an arrangement as could be 

 made in exhibition cases; but I am very cer- 

 tain that most anthropologists, like mam- 

 malogists and ornithologists, would prefer to 

 have the specimens in trays in storage cases 

 where they could be handled and minutely 

 examined. 



The exhibits in our museums twenty or 

 twenty-five years ago were largely of a char- 

 acter that reached no class of people as they 

 should be reached; but catered principally to 

 naturalists. Those were the days when the 

 exhibit expressed what the official occasionally 



put into words: "The public be d ." 



Within a very few years it seems to have come 

 to most museums that they were on the wrong 

 track; that their exhibits were not conducive 

 to the best use of the specimens by naturalists 

 and that they utterly failed to reach the 

 public. The keeping open to the public of the 

 halls of a large museum is a matter of great 

 expense, justifiable only on the ground of 

 public instruction, and quite uncalled for if 

 the exhibits are not intended for them. 



Most museums are supported to a consider- 

 able extent by their communities and there- 

 fore the taxpayer has a right to demand that 

 something be done for him; and every fair- 

 minded museum director will see to it that he 

 receives considerate treatment. 



