jDLYlS, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



65 



simply of this great Museum. They have 

 grown and spread and their multitudinous 

 aspects defy compression within the limits 

 of a reasonable and readable essay. But one 

 characteristic of the present development 

 of the Museum should receive attentive 

 consideration. 



President Jessup has, I presume, upon 

 mature deliberation thrown the energies of 

 this institution largely in the direction of 

 ethnographic study. Expeditions have been 

 and are to-day despatched into distant sec- 

 tions of indigenous culture to bring back the 

 implements,the dresses, the idols,art and in- 

 dustry of savage or semi- savage or pre-his- 

 toric races. Comparative studies in culture, 

 religion, language, myth, art, are to be in- 

 stituted, and the converging lines of such 

 research are to be directed towards that 

 baffling problem of the origin of the Ameri- 

 can race. American archaeology is to be 

 explored and its many phases, from the In- 

 dian arrow head to the Palenque altar 

 pieces and the slightly varying cultures of 

 Toltec, Miztec, Zapotec, I^ahuatl and Maya, 

 examined and substantially illustrated. 



While it is an affected propriety to say 

 ' the proper study of mankind is man,' and 

 while we may with earnestness recommend 

 the curiosity which hunts diligently for any 

 light which reveals the relations of races, 

 their origin, migration and changes, yet the 

 endless collections of pottery, stone imple- 

 ments, textiles, weapons, industrial work 

 and religion might often seem judiciously 

 discouraged. A museum of natural history 

 cannot conveniently or profitably merge its 

 character into that of a museum of com- 

 parative ethnology and archaeology. It 

 must retain preeminently its office of re- 

 vealing the realm of nature rather than 

 that of artifice. It must exhaust its re- 

 sources in a search for the marvels of the 

 animal and mineral kingdoms, and for the 

 revelations of geology. It must increas- 

 ingly regard its mission as concerned essen- 



tially with the lessons and the beauties 

 which are involved in and which decorate 

 the faunas or floras of the earth and those 

 which challenge our enthusiasm in the mar- 

 vels of crystals and the story of the globe. 



The publications of the Museum embrace 

 a series of bulletins now in its ninth volume, 

 and a series of memoirs scarcely begun. 

 They are liberally exchanged with foreign 

 and domestic societies, with individual 

 workers, libraries and institutions of learn- 

 ing. They comprise a great diversity of 

 subjects and are a record of original work 

 of supreme interest. The library has by 

 growth, exchange and gift reached a com- 

 manding size and numbers thirty thousand 

 volumes. 



The Museum has formed the most flatter- 

 ing alliances with societies that meet within 

 its walls, and with the University of Colum- 

 bia, which sustains a course of winter lec- 

 tures in its lecture hall. It is one station 

 of the free lectures of the people under Dr. 

 Leipziger, and its platform and admirable 

 equipments for illustration, designed by Mr. 

 L. C. Laudy, are in constant requisition for 

 lectures on travel, botany and natural his- 

 tory. 



The lectures given by Professor A. S. 

 Bickmore under the auspices of the De- 

 partment of Public Instruction are first 

 delivered here, and afterwards with the ac- 

 companying slides distributed to the State 

 Normal Schools and to the superintendents 

 of education in towns and incorporated vil- 

 lages. The educational activity of the 

 Museum is thus seen to be commendable, 

 and, while scarcely on a level with the super- 

 abundant and richly varied instructions 

 given by the Brooklyn Institute, its re- 

 sources in illustration somewhat over-weigh 

 the tireless ingenuity with which the area 

 of possible knowledge is explored by the 

 directors of the institution at Prospect Park. 



Material is being steadily accumulated 

 for original investigations, and in the De- 



