May 29, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



845 



is worthy of note that the most successful 

 of these owe more of their prosperity to the 

 generous interest and financial support of 

 public-spirited individuals than to the col- 

 lege itself. 



A good example of this condition is seen 

 in the zoological museum of our oldest iini- 

 versity, which, distinguished above all 

 others for its publications of research and 

 for having been the cradle of most of our 

 leading naturalists, has been mainly de- 

 pendent for many years upon the generous 

 bounty of a single individual. Other ex- 

 amples might be cited, but the above will 

 suffice to show that even our greatest and 

 richest universities have not been able to 

 maintain museums worthy of their aims, 

 unless aided by private subscriptions for 

 the purpose. The financial resources of 

 our universities have been taxed to the 

 utmost in the erection of buildings and em- 

 ployment of leading scholars upon their 

 faculties, and few of them have been able 

 to devote a due measure of support to mu- 

 seums. 



Moreover, our universities have often 

 failed to recognize the benefit which the 

 museum may confer upon the institution 

 as a whole as a center for productive 

 scholarship and publication of research. 



Unfortunately, at present, museum cura- 

 tors are too often narrow specialists who 

 display little interest in subjects other than 

 those which demand their immediate atten- 

 tion, but the fact remains that the curator 

 enjoys a unique opportunity in that he 

 gains much of his knowledge direct from 

 nature and that in this his opportunities 

 for research and exploration are im- 

 rivaled. The organization of graduate 

 schools in our universities is beginning to 

 demand the appointment of professors who 

 shall be productive scholars and leaders of 

 research, and who shall instil into the grad- 

 uate students that thirst for knowledge and 



desire for its advancement which inspires 

 the university students of Germany. The 

 curators of university museums should be 

 men of this stamp. 



Too often our college museums are vast 

 storehouses of practically unstudied ma- 

 terials under the charge of men who are 

 already overworked in the prosecution of 

 their duties as teachers of elementary facts, 

 or worse still, under the control of special- 

 ists who rarely or never may lecture to the 

 student body, and whose store of valuable 

 knowledge is wasted in seclusion. The 

 university museum should be the center 

 for the intellectual life of the graduate 

 student in the natural sciences. The cura- 

 tors should be his teachers, and the re- 

 sources of the museum should be constantly 

 expanded to meet his needs, and to encour- 

 age research which may lead to the dis- 

 covery of new laws of science. 



It is remarkable that, although large 

 sums have been given within recent years 

 for the construction of buildings and for 

 the purchase of collections in our museums, 

 relatively little has been devoted to the 

 endowment of publications of research. 



Our university museums must remain in- 

 effective as centers for the advancement of 

 science imtil this defect has been overcome. 



It appears that museums under purely 

 political or governmental auspices have in 

 our country rarely attained to that suc- 

 cess which one might reasonably have ex- 

 pected them to have achieved. 



Without in the least reflecting upon the 

 character or abilities of the corps of emi- 

 nent men of science whose names are in- 

 separably connected with that of our Na- 

 tional Museum, and who in the face of 

 limited means and meager opportunities 

 have devoted their lives to its service, it 

 may not be too much to say that this insti- 

 tution should be granted a greater measure 

 of independence, its curators shoiild have 



