24 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



In some cases, in a better class of museums, a small admission fee is 

 demanded, and the whole proceeds of this expended iu sustaining and 

 enlarging the collections. As an example of this I may mention the 

 public museum established by Mr. Woodward in San Francisco, which 

 is not only a source of continued amusement to the inhabitants of that 

 city, but also a means of adult education, since the specimens are gener- 

 ally well classified and properly labeled. Advantage should be taken 

 through museums, of a feature of the human mind essential to pro- 

 gress, the desire for novelty, to lead the public to the employment of 

 the intellectual pleasure derived from the study and contemplation of 

 nature. It is truly surprising how tastes may be formed, how objects 

 before disregarded may, when viewed as a part of a natural family, be 

 invested with attractions which shall ever after render them sources of 

 refined pleasure and unalloyed enjoyment. 



While the Smithsonian Institution should continue to devote a por- 

 tion of its own funds to assist in explorations which have for their 

 object the advance of science, the public museum, with the care of 

 which it is intrusted by Congress, should, in my opinion, without detract- 

 ing from its scientific character, largely partake of the popular element. 

 It is to be supported by the Treasury of the United States, and should, 

 therefore, be an object of interest to the large number of visitors who 

 are annually drawn to Washington by curiosity or otherwise, and who 

 cherish a patriotic pride in whatever redounds to the reputation of the 

 national capital. 



Besides specimens properly labeled for study, especially of the con- 

 tinent of North America, it should contain those to fully illustrate in 

 part, at least, the more prominent divisions of the animal, vegetable, 

 and mineral kingdoms. These should be so arranged, regard being had 

 to artistic effect, as to exhibit the principles of classification, the relation 

 of organs to one another and to those of their allies, the phases of their 

 organization, and other peculiarities relating to their habits and places 

 iu the economy of nature. To assist in this, models and pictorial illus- 

 trations of magnified smaller parts and of minute structures should be 

 supplied. In every instance the objects should be accompanied with 

 copious legible descriptions, and in no case should a group contain a 

 single specimen more than is absolutely necessary for the general purpose. 

 Economy of space in a public museum should never be consulted at the 

 expense of clearness of illustration. The national museum should 

 contain skeletons in the original, or casts in plaster, of all the larger 

 fossil animals — sections and scenic representations on a large scale of 

 geological periods, and modeled figures of the different races of men 

 and species of animals. 



The space which is at present available in the Smithsonian building 

 for a general public museum consists of the following apartments: 



1. On the first floor a room. 200 feet long and 50 feet wide. 2. Another 

 large room, in the west wing, 65% feet long by 35 feet wide, with a 



