6 



employees have, with the greatest difficulty, been kept at 

 about the same total as when our income was nearly one 

 third larger. It is not to be expected that the public will 

 take more than a very limited interest in the Museum, espe- 

 cially as in this vicinity there are no less than three Natural 

 History establishments, all having very similar aims. With 

 the present tendency to specialization, it seems impracticable 

 to carry on an immense Natural History collection without a 

 staff of specialists far greater in number than any institution 

 not backed by government or by an immense endowment can 

 ever hope to support. The present organization of the Museum 

 is based upon the assumption that its resources will keep pace 

 with the increased specialization of its different branches, and 

 the attempt has been made to combine the work of assist- 

 ants and that of original investigation. That officers' positions 

 cannot be maintained except in connection with the perma- 

 nently endowed Professorships of the University, is becoming 

 self-evident. No University, even if it be a great centre for 

 Natural History, can maintain more than a limited number 

 of endowed chairs ; and if the professorial duties of their in- 

 cumbents be not too arduous, a good amount of original work 

 may be expected of them. Still, with the present tendency of 

 science, original work cannot be based mainly upon the collec- 

 tions of a great museum. The geologist and the zoologist must 

 both supplement their work in the field. With the requirements 

 of to-day, collections can only supply materials for investi- 

 gations of limited scope .; and while undoubtedly many most 

 interesting problems require large collections for their solution, 

 the more important biological problems of the day require 

 materials prepared for special purposes in the laboratories of the 

 Universities. It is there that the influence of the teachers will 

 be felt in the direction given to the work of their more ad- 

 vanced students, and it should be the province of a University 

 to foster this work by granting special facilities for it, as well as 

 for the publication of these investigations. This the Museum is 

 now prepared to do. 



Laboratories for Biology and Geology — in their most ex- 

 tended sense — have been erected for the University. They 

 have now been occupied for a year, and their capacity for work 

 depends entirely upon the means for their equipment placed 



