1867.] SENATE— No. 52. 17 



scientific research needed to make this institution what I have 

 hoped to make it, a centre of original investigation and intel- 

 lectual progress, would occupy twice as many assistants as are 

 now engaged in the Museum during five or six years. The 

 salaries of such assistants, even if paid but very moderately, 

 together with the necessary outlay in glass jars, alcohol and 

 other material means essential to such work, would no doubt 

 involve the expenditure of another hundred thousand dol- 

 lars. The present resources of the Museum are barely suffi- 

 cient to carry on its regular, active operations in the most 

 meagre way. They do not suffice at all for the exigencies 

 arising from its growth and increase. This statement may 

 seem to make large and unreasonable demands upon the 

 future ; yet I trust the time is coming when, after the calls 

 upon the nation, for the final consolidation of her restored 

 unity are answered, the thoughtful and far-sighted may still 

 find the means to do for the arts of peace, and for the culture 

 of the people, something commensurate with the increase of 

 our material prosperity, wealth and power. Especially do I 

 hope this for Massachusetts, whose intellectual strength is and 

 has always been her proudest possession. By this, rather than 

 as a great commercial centre, or as a rich agricultural State, 

 does she hold her distinguished place in the republic, and 

 therefore I believe it will be her wisest, as well as her noblest 

 policy, to foster her institutions of learning. I speak not espe- 

 cially for that in which I am personally interested, but for all. 

 If I am ambitious for our Museum at Cambridge, it is only that 

 it should aim at a high order of intellectual work, and in so 

 far do its share in raising the standard of a liberal culture. If 

 some are inclined to criticize the costliness of such establish- 

 ments, I can only answer, that it is with museums as with all 

 living things ; what has vitality must grow. When museums 

 cease to grow, and consequently to demand ever-increasing 

 means, their usefulness is on the decline. 



Report on the Vertebrates, by Alex. Agassiz. 

 Nothing of special importance has been done for the Verte- 

 brates, besides the general preservation of the collection, except 

 to finish the cataloguing of the collection of Sharks and Skates, 

 3 



