114-(84) THE WORK OF THE SCIENTIFIC SECTION. 



maintainance of this three-fold collection is assumed by 

 the corporate society but the responsibility of acquiring 

 it is equitably divided among the sections. The law- 

 says of the art section that it shall secure and exhibit a 

 collection of works and objects of art ; of the Literary 

 section that it shall establish a library of reference ; and 

 of the scientific section that it shall establish and main- 

 tain a museum. Three separate rooms are set apart in 

 our building to accommodate these three diverse collec- 

 tions, to be accumulated by the three distinct societies 

 which constitute the Vassar Brothers Institute. What 

 more logical division of responsibility could be devised % 

 The best attainable success in all directions is possible 

 on account of the independent labor which this division 

 implies. 



But now as I come to speak of what a museum should 

 be, I proceed with some reluctance and timidity. The 

 subject belongs to a. branch of science in which I am not 

 learned. I would not for a moment put my opinion in 

 the balance against that of any one of several among 

 the members of our section, and therefore in what I say 

 I shall give to you, no peculiar views of my own, but 

 rather, those which I have gathered from the writings of 

 others who, because of their eminence in natural history, 

 are entitled to be regarded as authorities. 



In his presidential address to the Biological Section of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 in 1880, (See Nature, xxii : 394), Dr. Gunther, speaking 

 of Museums, made three distinct classes of them, which 

 he called respectively, National Museums, Educational 

 Museums, and Provincial, or as we would say, Local 

 Museums. This classification he based upon the leading 

 objects for which museums are established. "The object 

 of the National Museum is to supply the professional 

 student, or specialist, with as complete materials for his 

 scientific researches as can be obtained and to preserve for 

 future generations the materials on which these re- 

 searches have been based. 1 ' The object of the Educa- 

 tional Museum is "to supply the material for teaching 

 and studying the elements of science in connection with 

 oral or practical instruction, which alw r ays ought to be 

 combined with it, as in colleges and universities." The 



