May 29, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



843 



which never appeared in print. Many of 

 these views have since been generally 

 adopted at the later independent sugges- 

 tion of others less diffident about publica- 

 tion. An example in point is his opinion 

 concerning the structure of diazo bodies, 

 first conceived by him over twenty years 

 ago, and now conceded to be the most prob- 

 able hypothesis. 



Hill's original work and his lectures 

 were equally conspicuous for thorough 

 knowledge, convincing logic and perfect 

 sincerity. Until the end his highly culti- 

 vated and widely varied tastes continued to 

 be sources of refreshment and pleasure to 

 him, while to those of his colleagues who 

 came closest he revealed also keen and 

 appreciative sympathy, self-forgetting gen- 

 erosity, a stanch and devoted friendship, 

 undaunted courage, and above all, single- 

 heartedness in the search for truth. 



T. W. E. 



TEE STATUS OF PUBLIC MUSEUMS IN TEE 



UNITED STATES. 



I. THE AUSPICES OF OUR MUSEUMS. 



No general discussion of the status of 

 our museums has been attempted, although 

 G. Brown Goode (see 'Annual Report of 

 Smithsonian Institution,' 1897, Vol. II., 

 U. S. National Museum) has presented 

 many phases of the subject in a masterly 

 manner in his papers upon 'The Genesis 

 of the United States National Museum,' 

 'The Origin of the National Scientific and 

 Educational Institutions of the United 

 States,' 'The Beginnings of American 

 Science,' etc. He also instituted some 

 comparisons between our museums and 

 those of Europe, and in his report upon 

 the condition and progress of the U. S. 

 National Museiun, 1892-93, he shows that 

 while for 24 years the South Kensington 

 Museum had spent an annual average of 

 about $47,000 in the purchase of speci- 



mens, our National Museum had never 

 spent more than $8,500 annually for this 

 purpose. 



It is gratifying to observe that while 

 our National Museum has been enabled to 

 spend annually somewhat more for speci- 

 mens than during the period referred to by 

 Goode, yet in 1901 the American Museum 

 of Natural History expended more than 

 twice as much as the National Museum for 

 this purpose. 



The whole question of museum status has 

 become an important one, as we are in all 

 probability upon the eve of a museum 

 movement which may prove comparable 

 with the great increase in efficiency and 

 number of our public and school libraries, 

 which during the fiVe years from 1895 to 

 1900 have increased from 4,026 to 5,383, 

 and the number of volumes from 33,051,- 

 872 to 44,591,851, or almost 35 per cent. 



No corresponding increase has taken 

 place in the number of our public museums 

 or in the magnitude of their collections; 

 and, indeed, the subject has attracted so 

 little public interest that no published lists 

 of our museums are at present available, 

 although a very valuable list of the natural 

 history museums of the United States and 

 Canada and an account of their collections 

 are being prepared under the direction of 

 Professor Frederick J. H. Merrill, of the 

 New York State Museum, and will soon be 

 published. 



Professor Merrill has been so kind as to 

 allow me to inspect the proofsheets of this 

 interesting work, and I am also indebted to 

 the Smithsonian Institution for a partial 

 list of the museums of the United States. 

 It appears that within the United States 

 there are at least 252 institutions which 

 contain collections of objects of natural 

 history. Of the total number, 176 or 70 

 per cent, are school, college or university 

 museums; 31 are the museums of learned 



