August 2, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



173 



seum to ISTew York are significant in this 

 connection. Perhaps the first museum in 

 which a regard for scientific arrangement 

 was shown in New York was that described 

 in a rare and old pamphlet printed in 1804 

 entitled, ' Catalogue of the Natural Pro- 

 ductions and Curiosities which Compose the 

 Collections of the Cabinet of Natural His- 

 tory, opened for Public Exhibition at No. 

 33 William St., New York.'^ This cata- 

 logue, apparently prepared by a Delacoste, 

 in an introduction of four pages states that 

 " there is scarce a city or town of any im- 

 portance in Europe that is not possessed of 

 a cabinet of that kind ; but in the United 

 States of America, the variety of whose 

 productions and their dissimilarity from 

 those of the Old World offer ample field for 

 the researches of the naturalist, there is 

 scarcely a collection deserving the name, 

 except the one in Philadelphia belonging 

 to Wm. Peale, whose indefatigable re- 

 searches and laudable exertion to promote 

 the knowledge of natural history entitle 

 him to the gratitude of every friend of 

 science." This collection was exhibited as 

 the ' Delacoste Cabinet of Natural History,' 

 at Federal Hall and apparently at No. 80 

 Greenwich Street. The collections, accord- 

 ing to the examination instituted by Mr. 

 Avery, appear to have* been gathered on 

 the coast of Guyana in South America, 

 presumably by this Delacoste, and were 

 made up of ' Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, In- 

 sects, Eeptiles and Natural Productions of 

 Cayenne.' The information is further 

 elicited from the pages that " this above 

 collection, which was originally put up for 

 a Cabinet in St. Petersburg, would be sold 

 here, if any purchaser should offer, and in 

 case of the contrary will be forwarded next 



"We -were indebted to the kindness of S. D. 

 Avery, Esq., for the privilege of inspecting this in- 

 teresting pamphlet, a notice of which was first printed 

 in the New York Times, Saturday Eeview, July 1, 

 1899. 



spring to its first destination." Delacoste 

 inaugurated the plan of subscriptions now 

 familiar under a different form to his suc- 

 cessors, and we find amongst his sub- 

 scribers the names of leading New York 

 people of that early day, as the Clintons, 

 Hamiltons, Depeysters, Hosacks, Living- 

 stons, Pringles, Seymours, Eutherfords, 

 VanDykes, etc. Amongst these is the 

 name of Jerome Bonaparte. Delacoste 

 wished to make his establishment " per- 

 manent in New York, to augment his col- 

 lections in proportion to the encouragement 

 which he will receive, ^ ^ * and binds 

 himself, if enabled by an adequate support, 

 to travel through the whole continent of 

 North America for the purpose of securing 

 a skeleton of that anonymous animal called 

 the mastodon." The subscriptions ranged 

 from $3.00 to $1.00. 



Before this in 1790 the Tammany So- 

 ciety ' established a museum for the pur- 

 pose of collecting and preserving everything 

 relating to the history of the country.' 

 (Manual of the Common Council of New 

 York, 1865, D. T. Valentine.) This mu- 

 seum was subsequently relinquished to Gar- 

 diner Baker, whose expenditure of time and 

 money upon it had been considerable. 

 After the death of Baker it was sold to W. 

 J. Waldron, and finally was merged in the 

 Scudder Museum, of which it formed the 

 foundation, in Chatham Street. This em- 

 bryonic effort was called the American 

 Museum. 



John Scudder, the predecessor of Bar- 

 num and Peale, established a pay museum 

 of some merit in 1810. It was praised in 

 very mellifluous English by a contempo- 

 rary who rejoices that " it continues daily 

 to improve, by extensive and valuable ad- 

 ditions of the works of nature and artificial 

 curiosities, from all parts of the world. Its 

 immense collections are well arranged and 

 beautifully displayed in four spacious sa- 

 loons, each 100 feet in length ; in addition 



