MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 7 



Although my administrative connection with the Museum ceases 

 now, I look forward to its future with no little concern. When 

 the more intimate relation between the Museum and the Univer- 

 sity (dating back to 1876) was established, it was hoped that the 

 new arrangement might prove advantageous to both institutions. 

 So far as the Museum is concerned, this hope has not been ful- 

 filled. While the divisions of Zoology and Geology in the Uni- 

 versity have been greatly expanded by the facilities afforded them 

 by the Museum, the latter has gained no corresponding benefit 

 from the University, nor has it received from the friends and 

 graduates of Harvard the aid and support which might have been 

 expected as a result of this mutual arrangement. 



The funds available for carrying on the Museum and for pro- 

 moting research are meagre in the extreme, and there are liter- 

 ally no means existing for the publication of the original work 

 presented from the various laboratories. The slender thread which 

 connected the Museum with the teaching departments at the time 

 of its incorporation with the University is practically severed, the 

 administration of the Museum being no longer in any way con- 

 cerned with instruction, as was originally included in the articles 

 of agreement between the University and the Museum. Under 

 existing conditions the University Museum cannot hope to hold 

 its own with similar institutions which have grown up in late 

 years. The Natural History Museums in New York and in 

 Chicago, connected as they are with municipalities which deal with 

 them in a most generous and intelligent manner, will leave far 

 behind a University Museum depending upon resources which 

 grow annually less with a painful regularity. 



ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 



Cambridge, September 1, 1898. 



