6 



rooms, used as lecture-room, laboratories, store-rooms, and exhi- 

 bition-rooms. A visitor to the Museum in those early days 

 would now find it difficult to recognize the rooms or their con- 

 tents in the present arrangement. The ground covered by the 

 building as it stands to-day is five times as great. There are no 

 less than eighteen exhibition-rooms,* with their corresponding 

 galleries, of which eleven are open to the public. Thirty-two 

 rooms are used for storage and quarters for special students 

 and assistants. There are also a lecture-room, a Curator's room 

 and office, eleven laboratories of biology and geology for College 

 and advanced students, four rooms devoted to the Library, and 

 in the basement, in addition to boiler space, rooms intended as 

 an Aquarium and Vivarium and for receiving freight ; — making 

 in all seventy-one rooms, the dimensions usually being thirty 

 feet by forty, and twelve galleries. 



Of course, this result has not been attained without a very 

 considerable expenditure, and from the nature of the case a cer- 

 tain waste could not be prevented. In addition to the ordinary 

 income of the Museum about half a million of dollars has been 

 expended since 1875 for land, the buildings, the collections, and 

 the publications. 



We have probably reached the limit of a university organiza- 

 tion for such an institution. While it undoubtedly is capable of 

 indefinite expansion in, the way of endowments for special pro- 

 fessorships and assistants, it is doubtful if it is wise to expect or 

 aim at any expansion beyond that which naturally comes from 

 the demands of endowed chairs in a university. Original in- 

 vestigation has always been best promoted in connection with 

 educational institutions, and, in conformity with their demands, 

 museums should grow so fast and no faster, unless they are to 

 become mere unwieldy and meaningless accumulations. 



The difficulty, if not impossibility, of uniting with other insti- 

 tutions, so as to avoid repetitions which are often both useless 

 and expensive, is a most discouraging feature in museum admin- 

 istration. No matter how the field may be preoccupied, each 

 director will pride himself upon his success in having accom- 

 plished what probably has already been done by others. No 

 doubt, in a country covering so great an area, and with the dense 



* For an enumeration of the contents and uses to which our space is devoted 

 see Report for 1882-83. 



