926 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 650 



museums, where the mass of material con- 

 sists ahnost everywhere of collections from 

 North America, and whe^ material from 

 other continents is very inadequately rep- 

 resented. There is no inherent difficulty 

 in obtaining small systematic collections 

 covering any particular branch of sci- 

 ence, but in a large museum there is al- 

 ways a preponderance of material relating 

 to particular problems or to particular 

 regions. This lack of material will always 

 be an obstacle to a complete systematiza- 

 tion of large collections, even if such sys- 

 tematization were desirable. A number of 

 small museums have tried to develop rep- 

 resentative and systematic collections, with 

 excellent success, and have become in this 

 way important adjuncts for the teaching 

 facilities of the cities in which they are 

 located; but here efficiency is inseparable 

 from small size. 



The difficulties that lie in the way of 

 arranging a large museum according to a 

 systematic plan of instruction are mani- 

 fold. First of all, it must be recognized 

 that in a large city people with entirely 

 different interests will consult the mu- 

 seum, and will therefore desire to find 

 the material in entirely different sys- 

 tematic arrangement. To take the ex- 

 ample of zoology. One teacher may desire 

 to utilize the musemn for his classes in 

 which he gives a review of systematic zool- 

 ogy. Another one may desire to impress 

 upon the student the development of the 

 nervous system or of certain organs of the 

 body. Still another may be interested in 

 the essential phenomena relating to the 

 question of evolution of species. And still 

 another may want to illustrate by means of 

 collections the traits of local faunas. The 

 greater the number of people who desire 

 to consult the museum in this manner, the 

 more numerous will also be the points of 

 view from which systematization wiU ap- 

 pear desirable. I think even to those not 



familiar with museum administration it 

 will be at once apparent that the attempt 

 to organize the entire collections of a large 

 museum from this point of view can have 

 only one result. If every justifiable point 

 of view is included, the complexity of the 

 system will become so great that the useful- 

 ness of the whole series will become very 

 doubtful. If, on the other hand, only a 

 few points of view are selected, then all 

 sciences as presented in that particular 

 museum will appear in the strait- jacket 

 into which they have been put by the nar- 

 rowness of the selected view-points, while 

 the material should rather be so arranged 

 that it can be grasped from a multitude of 

 points of view. 



The experience of school museums and of 

 university museums points clearly the way 

 in which this difficulty may best be solved. 

 A large museum might have a wing or a 

 small group of halls set aside for the pur- 

 pose of systematic instruction, where classes 

 could be taken from one case to another, 

 and where the essential points of view 

 which are used in the ordinary teaching 

 of science are utilized as the principle of 

 installation; but the usefulness of these 

 haUs should not be overestimated, because 

 the museum, with its mass of exhibits, is 

 not a favorable place to obtain concentra- 

 tion of attention of students. That much 

 can be attained in this manner by a small 

 museum, and with very slender means, is 

 shown, for instance, by the museum in 

 Salem, Mass., which, with an annual appro- 

 priation of $8,000 (including all salaries, 

 maintenance and purchases), has, under 

 the able direction of Professor Edward S. 

 Morse, done much for public education. 



In cities of the size of New York or Chi- 

 cago or Philadelphia, the best use of such 

 a centralized collection can not be made. 

 On account of the enormous distances in 

 the city, it wiU. very seldom be possible to 

 assemble at any definite time in the museum 



