,34r, • KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Others not so easily obtained in their vicinity and thus, in time, form a collection, 

 while not less amusing and attractive, much more varied and instructive. Ma- 

 terial thus received can easily be accompanied with instructive facts concerning 

 its position, relations, habits, etc., which will be doubly valuable because they 

 stimulate thought as well as furnish pastime and amusement. 



National and State governments make laws to protect fish, birds, etc., at 

 certain seasons of the year for a greater public benefit at other seasons. They 

 should also provide some way of preventing the destruction and misapplication of 

 archaeological and other scientific material, so it may be legitimately employed for 

 the advancement of science and for the increase of popular intelligence. The 

 Danish government requires that scientific collections made on its territory shall 

 be deposited in the national museums. A scientific commission in England is 

 intended to accomplish a similar end there ; and such a commission or depart- 

 ment in our government is a consummation devoutly to be wished, and one which 

 the growing intelligence of our people will doubtless, at no far distant day, de- 

 mand and then supply. May friends of science and of national progress speed 



the day. 



Museums are also of great advantage for encouraging and fostering original 

 investigation. As the question of evolution or of creation is racking the whole 

 scientific and religious world, and is so largely to be settled by having an un- 

 broken series of all life in chronological order for examination, the vast impor- 

 tance of extensive collections of fossils can hardly be over-estimated. A writer in 

 the Advance, some time ago, said: " The science of geology, dealing as it does 

 ■wiih the only visible record of any considerable age, in regard to the history of 

 life upon our planet, must settle the vexed questions — if they are ever to be settled 



of the origin of species, the antiquity and perhaps the unity of man. To many, 



the acceptance of the new theories on these points is equivalent to legislating God 

 out of the universe. If so many are wrecked upon these questions, the correct 

 understanding of them is a matter of no little importance." Mr. Agassiz has 

 said " The question of the geographical distribution of animals lies at the very 

 bottom of the question as to their origin.' This must be shown by com- 

 plete faunal collections from all localities, which can be seen only in large 

 museums. Museums are valuable, too, for studying the life history of various 

 animals, when a large series of aUied forms, showing the variations of life, habit 

 and characters, are accessible for comparative study. Here the investigator often 

 leatns that forms which were supposed, from their lack of resemblance, to repre- 

 sent different species, are connected by a regular gradation of similar forms and 

 arc; really the same. A large series is often necessary to enable the investigator, 

 who is studying new or rare forms of which perfect specimens are seldom seen, 

 to determine the species, relation of parts, size, shape, etc., of the complete ani- 

 mal. One fragment will supplement another, throwing new light in various ways, 

 and thus furnish material for the restoration of the complete animal. 



Questions of practical importance are continually arising in regard to^one or 

 another of nature's products which, for lack of sufficient data at home, have to be 



