6 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



discovering much that is new to science ; and the favorable 

 reception with which the two parts of our Illustrated Catalogue 

 have been welcomed by naturalists, competent to judge of their 

 scientific value, shows plainly how desirable it is that it should 

 be continued more rapidly, and our publications so enlarged as 

 to include other investigations, daily making, which cannot 

 appropriately be incorporated into the catalogues. But for this 

 also means are wanting, since it is not possible to look to the 

 sale of the catalogues for this purpose, when they are mainly 

 so distributed as to secure similar publications from other scien- 

 tific institutions. It is therefore indispensable that special 

 means be provided for this object. The necessity appears to me 

 more imperative since I have satisfied myself that we could 

 easily publish one quarto volume every year. 



In the third place, the general usefulness of the Museum is 

 crippled by the limited room allotted to the public exhibition of 

 the specimens. In order to heighten the scientific importance 

 of the Museum I have, from the beginning, resisted the tempta- 

 tion of making it attractive to the many by putting up showy 

 specimens, and devoted all the means of the institution to 

 increasing its purely scientific resources. But while this has 

 greatly heightened the intrinsic value of the collections, it may, 

 in a measure, have perilled the popularity of the Museum ; and 

 it is probably high time that something be done to gratify the 

 curiosity of the public, who have thus far generously approved 

 the expenses incurred, and the appropriations made by the Leg- 

 islature to help our establishment. This can, however, not be 

 done without considerable additional expense, as our Building 

 is totally inadequate to the proper exhibition of the collections 

 stored in it at this moment. Until the northern wing is fully 

 completed, with the addition of the corner room of the main 

 structure it will be impossible to begin a general systematic 

 arrangement of all our scientific possessions. 



And here allow me to remark that the public at large is not 

 alone a loser by this delay in the final execution of our plans. 

 Whatever there is that may be original in the intended arrange- 

 ment, approved by the Faculty of the Museum, to whom my 

 schemes to this effect have been submitted, and whatever 

 advance might thus be secured for science generally, remains 

 in abeyance until our building is enlaiged. In the last few 



