July 15, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



67 



The second and remaining groups are in- 

 cluded in the number who have met these 

 objects of study in the class room, the lec- 

 ture hall, are collectors, or from reading or 

 conversation, or any other line of contact 

 feel an interest in the specimens them- 

 selves, in their arrangement and in their 

 elucidation. This is a respectable number 

 and from the nature of things is constantly 

 growing. But this observation emphasizes 

 the relation in which the museum stands to 

 education in natural history. The intelli- 

 gent constituency of a museum of natural 

 history are those who know something 

 about its contents. And the extension of 

 natural history study in the schools or col- 

 leges is directly promotive of the interest 

 of the museum. The duty, then, of the 

 museum is unmistakably to justify such 

 extension of study by its own ample and 

 adequate and lucidly prepared collections. 



This view receives coniirmation in the 

 experience of the Carnegie Museum at 

 Pittsburg. The first sentences of the re- 

 port for 1896 of this institution contains 

 the following paragraph: "With the 

 opening of the second year of the Carnegie 

 Museum the institution found itself occujay- 

 ing a most favorable situation. Its growth 

 during the first year had been phenomenal. 

 The public mind, however, had not kept 

 pace with its progress. While the attend- 

 ance was always good, the people seemed to 

 make no serious study of the many inter- 

 esting collections. This was particularly 

 the case on the part of the younger visitors, 

 who came frequently but seemed rather to 

 take a general view than to make a careful 

 inspection." To awaken the critical in- 

 terest which seemed absent, the Museum 

 Committee conferred with the Superinten- 

 dent of Public Schools of Pittsburg, and as 

 a result offered a prize essay competition 

 for the pupils of the high schools and high 

 school classes of the public schools. The 

 competing essay was to take the form of a 



letter, limited to two thousand words in 

 length, from the various contestants to a 

 friend describing a visit to the Museum. 

 The flattering result of this scheme is thus 

 described in the same report : 



" No sooner had the circulars been pub- 

 lished in the newspapers and distributed to 

 the pupils than the expected result ensued. 

 The pupils of the two chosen grades flocked 

 to the Museum, accompanied by parents 

 and friends, and the habit of careless saun- 

 tering immediately gave place to minute ■ 

 and studious observation. Those who de- 

 signed to compete for the prizes used their 

 note-books for describing the objects, having 

 been cautioned by the committee's circular 

 against making mere lists of the labels or 

 the use of technical language, and informed 

 that the committee preferred ' an intelligent, 

 comprehensive and general description 

 rather than itemized statement or complete 

 catalogue,' nor was this improvement in the 

 method of studying the museum confined 

 alone to the contesting pupils, for the whole 

 body of visitors was observed to take a 

 deeper interest in the inspection of the ob- 

 jects." 



In other words, the collections of the 

 Museum become objects of study, of reflec- 

 tive observation, and probably are memo- 

 rized as to their nature, meaning and 

 relations when a motive of interest prevails 

 to such an end with their visitors. In the 

 accidental case adduced it was a motive of 

 ambition, with some mercenary considera- 

 tions partially involved. But the motive 

 that can be most generally invoked is one 

 springing from previous knowledge. We 

 all naturally examine new illustrations of 

 what we have studied, what we have col- 

 lected, or what we have heard about. The 

 profuse admiration of men and women, 

 boys and girls, in the halls of the Museum, 

 over the shells and the birds, and gems and 

 minerals, means almost nothing. Remove 

 these hysterical eulogists to the outside of 



