MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY; 



at the same time leaving it optional with his nephew, Mr. William 

 Gray, whether the Museum should be connected with Harvard Uni- 

 versity, or with some other institution of the same kind. On the 20th 

 of December, 1858, Mr. William Gray informed the President and 

 Fellows of Harvard University that he presented them with fifty thou- 

 sand dollars, as bequeathed by Mr. Francis C. Gray, for the establish- 

 ment of a Museum of Comparative Zoology ; at the same time making 

 other valuable donations for the benefit of the University. The Presi- 

 dent and Fellows of Harvard University, in accepting these gifts, 

 voted, — 



" That the corporation are duly sensible that the final determination as to 

 these noble charities was left to William Gray, Esq., in his capacity as execu- 

 tor and residuary legatee of his uncle's estate ; and they request their Presi- 

 dent to write a letter of acknowledgment to that gentleman, thanking him for 

 a liberality of conduct and a generous regard for the interests of the Univer- 

 sity which will forever associate his own and his uncle's name in these wise 

 and munificent endowments." 



STATE AID. 



In 1859 the matter of State aid to the Museum of Comparative Zo- 

 ology was brought to the notice of the Legislature through the mes- 

 sage of Governor Banks, and the Committee on Education took into 

 consideration the proposition to appropriate money for the erection of 

 a suitable building at Cambridge for the use of that Institution. In 

 February of that year the Committee on Education invited Professor 

 Agassiz to address them on the subject. This invitation was accepted, 

 and in the course of his remarks he said : — 



"It is unnecessary for me to state to you that the great object I have in 

 view in appearing before you is the preservation of the collections of zoologi- 

 cal specimens which I have been for a long time engaged in making. But I 

 have merely laid the foundation of a great museum by my labors of the past 

 six or eight years, and these choice specimens are now in a building which is 



totally unsafe The specimens are preserved in alcohol, and this alcohol 



is constantly running over, rendering it unsafe to have fire in the building by 

 day or by night. My great object is to have a museum founded here which 

 will equal the great museums of the Old World. We have a continent before * 



us for exploration which has as yet been only skimmed on the surface 



I have recently received a letter from the Director of the Museum at Vienna 

 stating that he had sent me several hundred specimens of fishes from the 

 Euphrates, the Nile, and elsewhere, for which he wished a single specimen of 



