850 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 439. 



such as the American Museum of Natural 

 History, the Field Columbian Museum 

 and the Carnegie Museum of Natural His- 

 tory in Pittsburgh. 



This comparison appears fair, owing to 

 the fact that the management of our Na- 

 tional Museum is more economical than 

 that of many other prominent museums 

 under political auspices.* The results are 

 presented in the table on previous page 

 showing the percentage of total income de- 

 voted to various purposes. 



In general, it appears that museums 

 under political control expend more for 

 salaries and wages and less for specimens 

 than do those whose management is en- 

 trusted to boards of trustees who have 

 power to appoint and discharge employees 

 independent of civil service rules. Mu- 

 seums under civil service rules, however, 

 expend relatively more for books and pam- 

 phlets, and more for the publication of re- 

 search, than do public museums not under 

 political control. 



The museimis of universities or of 

 learned societies, however, lead in the pro- 

 portionate amount devoted to the develop- 

 ment of their libraries and to publication 

 of original research, and these institutions 

 have in our country contributed to the ad- 

 vancement of science and education in a 

 ratio wholly disproportionate to their rel- 

 atively meager income. 



An analysis of the expenditures for 

 salaries and wages in our musetmis under 

 civil service shows that in general they 

 pay much more for the services of clerks, 

 guards and laborers than for the salaries of 



* Tlie National Museum being the repository for 

 all collections made under the direction of gov- 

 ernment, is not obliged to maintain expeditions 

 under its own auspices. The sum of $2,016, or 

 0.7 per cent, of its total income, was devoted to 

 ' travel.' 



men of science, artists and skilled pre- 

 parators, while the reverse is the case in 

 museums under other auspices. The mu- 

 seums of colleges are most economical in 

 their appropriation for salaries, but in 

 many such museums the lack of curatorial 

 work upon the collections is very apparent, 

 and renders their educational value insig- 

 nificant in comparison with that of collec- 

 tions which have received more attention 

 in labeling and arrangement. Also the 

 universities often r.ely, to a considerable 

 extent, upon the services of unpaid cura- 

 tors, who devote only a portion of their 

 time to museum work and whose spasmodic 

 efforts are, on the whole, unsatisfactory. 



As Sir William Flower* aptly states: 

 "What a museum really depends upon for 

 its success and usefulness is not its build- 

 ing, not its cases, not even its specimens, 

 but its curator. He and his staff are the 

 life and soul of the institution, upon whom 

 its whole value depends." 



Specimens are materials only; their use- 

 fulness depends upon what is done with 

 them. Our museums can do no better than 

 to obtain the services of men of the best 

 scientific training and efficiency. We re- 

 quire better rather than more men. Mu- 

 seums from their nature afford exceptional 

 opportunities for study, research and ex- 

 ploration, and may be made peculiarly 

 attractive as fields of labor for men of sci- 

 ence who desire to increase knowledge. 

 The leading men of science in our country 

 should be found in the museums, but a 

 narrow policy in the granting of oppor- 

 tunity for research, exploration and pub- 

 lication, and the general poverty of our 

 museums, have confined them largely to 

 our universities, where their efforts are 

 devoted to elementary teaching rather 



* ' Essays on Museums and Other Subjects Con- 

 nec*ed with Natural History,' London, 1898, p. 12. 



