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tion of Professor Agassiz until the present time, when it may claim to 

 rank among the foremost institutions of its kind ; for although the 

 British Museum in London and the Jardin des Plantes in Paris are on 

 a very much larger scale, yet in certain departments, such as corals, 

 echinoderms, and fishes, the Museum of Comparative Zoology is supe- 

 rior to both, while the increase of its collections since its existence, and 

 the prominence it has attained among other museums, is such as no like 

 establishment has reached in the same time and with the same means. 



One word more respecting the collections of the Museum as they ap- 

 pear at present, and the intended arrangement when the new building, 

 now in course of erection, is completed. 



From want of space the greater part of the Museum as it now exists 

 is occupied by working-rooms and store-rooms, and only four rooms are 

 devoted to exhibition. Each of these contains the representatives of 

 one great division of the animal kingdom, and it is intended to complete 

 them in such a manner that they shall exhibit in an easy and conspic- 

 uous way the natural relations of all the animals known in creation. In 

 the new building now going up — which adjoins the present museum, 

 and is to be of equal dimensions — it is intended to exhibit all the ani- 

 mals peculiar to the different parts of the world in such a manner as to 

 impress the observer with their actual association in nature, so that the 

 student of Natural History shall be able to make himself familiar in one 

 part of the building with the latest result of scientific research in work- 

 ing out the system of thoughts which bind together the whole animal 

 kingdom as a unit; while in the other part of the building the geograph- 

 ical distribution of animals upon the whole surface of the earth, and 

 their various combinations and associations in different continents will 

 be made apparent. Such a twofold arrangement of collections has 

 never yet been attempted in any museum, not even in the largest and 

 most prominent institutions of the kind in Europe. The fossil remains 

 of past ages will be exhibited in like manner in such a way as to display 

 at the same time their order of succession in geological periods and 

 their relations to the animals now living. It is intended to complete 

 this plan by exhibiting also the different stages of growth of all known 

 animals, from their earliest period of development in the egg to their 

 adult condition. The plan of/ the Director is, in short, to make the 

 Museum illustrate the history of creation, as far as the present state of 

 scientific knowledge reveals that history ; but although the addition to 

 the Museum will double the amount of room, the whole of this scheme 

 cannot be carried out at present, and a large part of the collections 

 must still remain in the store-rooms until another section of the build- 

 ing can be completed. 



