OCTOBEK U, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



501 



has been said should give eneouragemeiit 

 to such speculations. On the other hand, I 

 have a very firm conviction that we should 

 not be content with rounding out organic 

 chemistry as a descriptive science nor even 

 with adding to the number of empirical 

 rules which enable us to predict certain 

 classes of phenomena. We must, instead, 

 place before ourselves the much higher 

 ideal of gaining a clear insight into the 

 nature of atoms and molecules and of the 

 forces or motions which are the real reason 

 for the phenomena which we study. When 

 we consider the progress which has been 

 made and the knowledge of structure we 

 now possess, which would have appeared 

 sixty years ago to lie beyond the limits of 

 possible acquirement, it is not presumptu- 

 ous to think that a more complete' knowl- 

 edge of these questions will at some time be 

 gained. This fuller knowledge will take 

 account, too, of many lines of work upon 

 which I have no time to dwell, such as the 

 question of changing atomic volume to 

 which Professors Richards and Traube have 

 directed our attention, and the knowledge 

 of heats of combustion, of molecular refrac- 

 tion and dispersion, of color, viscosity, 

 dielectric constants and other physical 

 properties. The future must give to us a 

 new theory or a development of old ones 

 which shall include all of these phenomena 

 in one comprehensive view. 



William A. Notes. 

 U. S. Bureau of Standards. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



MUSEUMS AKD MUSEUM APPLIANCES. 



The Museum. By L. P. Geatacap. Eeprinted 

 from the Journal of Applied Microscopy 

 and Laboratory Methods, Vols. V. and VI. 

 Bericht ij.her einige Neue Einrichtungen 

 des Eoniglichen Zoologischen und Anthro- 

 pologisch-Ethnographischen Museums in 

 Dresden. Von Dr. A. B. Meyer. 4to. 

 Pp. 25 ; pis. I.-XX. 

 The first of these is a reprint of Mr. Grata- 



cap's series of papers which appeared in the 

 Journal of Applied Microscopy and is a 

 pamphlet of about 100 pages with many illus- 

 trations. In book form it would make a good- 

 sized volume and as these articles contain a 

 good resume of the principles of museum con- 

 struction and methods of installation, it is a 

 pity that they could not have been issued in 

 such shape. Mr. Gratacap is well qualified to 

 treat of museum matters, and since there is 

 not space to note all the good things he says, it 

 must suffice to discuss a few concerning which 

 there may be room for a difference of opinion. 

 The first is to be found almost at the begin- 

 ning, where Mr. Gratacap makes a plea for a 

 uniform system in museum methods. The field 

 covered by museums is so vast and the edu- 

 cational features at present so little developed 

 that there is ample scope for diversity in the 

 treatment of museum exhibits, the more that 

 those features that are universally good can 

 only be ascertained by experiment, to say 

 nothing of the fact that the ends sought for 

 may be very different in different museums. 

 To illustrate this we may consider the ques- 

 tions of the display of skeletons and of fossil 

 vertebrates. If the aim is to show the struc- 

 ture and relationship of vertebrates as a whole 

 the two should be combined, the number of 

 specimens should be limited, and fragmentary 

 fossils almost entirely excluded, this being a 

 case where a cast or good drawing is much 

 better than an imperfect specimen, since it is 

 necessary to compare animals in their entirety. 

 If the object is to show the succession of life 

 on the globe, then the fossils should be ar- 

 ranged zoologically under their respective 

 geological periods, so that the visitor can see 

 the successive steps by which the present 

 fauna of the globe has been reached. Still 

 a third arrangement of fossil vertebrates is 

 possible, that adopted by Professor Osborn, 

 of showing by numerous specimens the 

 phylogeny of various groups. If it is desired 

 to show the structure and characters of 

 vertebrates, then skeletons and other anatom- 

 ical preparations nfay be placed with mounted 

 animals. No one museum can do all these 

 things and each institution must decide oh 

 the plan that best suits its circumstances. 



