930 



SCIENCE 



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



be checked, but they are also the place 

 where scientific materials from distant 

 countries, vanishing species, paleonto- 

 logical remains, and the objects used by 

 vanishing tribes, are kept and preserved 

 for all future time, and may thus be made 

 the basis of studies which, without them, 

 would be impossible. We are spending 

 vast sums year after year to bring together 

 evidences of life forms of distant countries 

 and of past ages, to accumulate the monu- 

 ments of the past and objects used by 

 remote tribes. We collect these because 

 they are the foundation of scientific study. 

 Should we then be unwiUing to provide 

 adequate means for keeping intact the re- 

 sults of our expensive inquiries? It is the 

 essential function of the museum as a 

 scientific institution to preserve for all 

 future time, in the best possible way, the 

 valuable material that has been collected, 

 and not to allow it to be scattered and 

 to deteriorate. 



Considering this point of view, there can 

 be no greater misconception of the duties 

 of a museum administrator than the be- 

 lief that proper care of accumulated ma- 

 terial is less important than beautiful 

 exhibits. The lack of proper care of 

 inflammable and perishable material, the 

 constant shifting about of material not 

 used for exhibits, the lack of conservatism 

 in exchanging and giving away collections 

 for elementary educational purposes, be- 

 long to the most inexcusable features of 

 museum administration. Unfortunately 

 the method of preservation of collections 

 in our museums is in many cases not what 

 it ought to be, partly from necessity, partly 

 fi'om choice. The crowded condition of 

 the building, like that of the United States 

 National Museum, or the attempt to rele- 

 gate vast amounts of material to storage- 

 rooms, as in the American Museum of 

 Natural History, and the use of wooden 

 receptacles for the storage of valuable 

 material, endanger the safety of the collec- 



tions and make their use temporarily or 

 permanently difficult. Serious scientists 

 know perfectly well that in the study of 

 biological and anthropological phenomena 

 observations on a single specimen are gen- 

 erally misleading, and that one of the great 

 advantages gained in modern times, and 

 based to a great extent upon the improve- 

 ment of museum methods, consists in the 

 possibility of examining long series rather 

 than individuals. The reason for this is 

 that the series alone can give us what is 

 characteristic, while, when only an indivi- 

 dual is available, characteristic traits may 

 be overlooked, or we may be liable to con- 

 sider an accidental trait as characteristic 

 for a whole group. For this reason science 

 is better served by the preservation of large 

 series relating to the same question in one 

 place rather than by scattering such series 

 over a great many different places. This 

 is true of all sciences, and this is the justi- 

 fication for the accumulation of extended 

 material bearing upon the same point. In- 

 roads that are made upon large collections 

 in order to obtain scattering material 

 otherwise not represented in the museum 

 should be resisted by every conscientious 

 scientist. 



In order to make large series useful, the 

 bulk of the material in a museum should 

 be kept in such a manner that it is not 

 only accessible at a moment's notice, but 

 that it can also be examined from any 

 point of view. While in zoological collec- 

 tions consisting of skeletons and skins, this 

 end may be attained fairly adequately by 

 storage in metal boxes systematically 

 arranged and easily opened, other material 

 can not be handled in the same manner. 

 This is particularly true of anthropological 

 material, which, on account of the differ- 

 ence in size, form and material of the ob- 

 jects, and on account of the multiplicity 

 of the points of view from which the ma- 

 terial can be viewed, can only be stored 



