892 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 649 



I now venture to suggest that such a 

 museum, representing the development of 

 medicine, natural sciences and technics in 

 their whole range, be established in this 

 country, perhaps here in New Tork, which 

 seems to be the most appropriate place for 

 it; and I am under the strong impression 

 that such an institution would be of wide 

 and universal benefit to our public at large, 

 and would contribute immensely towards 

 the furtherance of science, both natural 

 and historical, and also considerably aid the 

 cause of anthropology. The temporary 

 tuberculosis exhibit in this city last winter 

 may serve as a technical example of what 

 could be accomplished here. If a sufficient 

 number of notable physicians of New York 

 could be interested in the far more exten- 

 sive plan just proposed— the carrying out 

 of which would not require an exorbitant 

 capital— its realization would seem to be 

 within easy reach. Nothing would be more 

 welcome to us than the sympathetic coop- 

 eration of physicians, to interest whom in 

 the study of anthropology we must make 

 many more and larger efforts, especially 

 when we consider how signally anthropol- 

 ogy, in its theoretical and practical bear- 

 ings, has progressed and been advanced by 

 medical men in Europe. One of the fore- 

 most tasks of the future American museum 

 devoted to medical science would certainly 

 be to represent the accomplishments of the 

 hygiene, and technical inventions. In this 

 way we should enlist the interest of physi- 

 cians in our native population; and stu- 

 dents of anthropology might also profit 

 from their mode of viewing the subject or 

 from an active participation in our work. 

 A museum of this type, if developed on the 

 broadest lines, may indeed lead also to new 

 and fruitful anthropological work. I need 

 hardly accentuate here the point that a full 

 historical representation of all endemic and 

 the great epidemic diseases (analogous to 



the idea of the tuberculosis museums), in 

 connection with the development of hy- 

 giene, would be a matter of great public 

 service— an undertaking which should meet 

 with the support of all philanthropists. It 

 goes without saying that a museimi of this 

 kind would be a scientific, social and educa- 

 tional potency of the highest order— an 

 agency of social progress, not inferior in 

 rank to art or ethnographical museums. 



At the same time I may be allowed to 

 express the wish that the study of the his- 

 tory of medicine and the other natural sci- 

 ences be taken up in this country with the 

 same energy as on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. I need not dwell here on a dis- 

 cussion of the manifold advantages of such 

 pursuits, as the development of all science 

 as an emanation of human culture nat- 

 urally falls under the head of anthropology. 



The most obvious gain which could be 

 derived from the carrying out of these sug- 

 gestions would be closer affiliation and more 

 intimate contact of all the sciences. In the 

 pursuit of historical investigations, we are 

 all on common ground, and the character 

 of the subject necessitates mutual depend- 

 ence and assistance. It logically leads to a 

 plea for cooperation, through the efficiency 

 of which many of our most important 

 problems are awaiting their final solution. 

 Allow me to recall to you the study of the 

 history of cultural plants and domestic 

 animals, as constituting the framework of 

 all higher forms of human culture. These 

 topics have engaged the attention of an- 

 thropologists to a very limited extent only, 

 being mainly worked up by botanists and 

 zoologists, and occasionally by geographers 

 and economists. The leading books on the 

 subject are little satisfactory from the his- 

 torical point of view, while historical inves- 

 tigations already in existence suffer from 

 the lack of botanical or zoological accuracy. 

 There is an unharmonious dissonance be- 



