276 ) Eaitors’ Table. [ March, 
EDITORS’ TABLE. 
EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD AND E. D. COPE. 
The appropriation of money for scientific purposes by the 
Congress of the United States is a just source of national pride, 
as it is a means of national development and prosperity. The 
scientific men who have the disbursement of this money hold a 
trust for science, and their use of it is watched by the scientific 
men of all countries with interest. The expenditures have been, 
as it appears to us, generally well directed. One of our na- 
tional establishments, however, seems to us to be in danger of 
absolute perversion from scientific uses and purposes, though, 
perhaps, intelligent attention directed to the situation may be 
the means of arresting such a misfortune. We refer to the 
National Museum at Washington. By its present organization 
it contemplates an exhibition of the products of the United 
States, both raw and manufactured. At the same time it does 
not embrace the agencies necessary for the prosecution of scien- 
tific research, either by making collections or supporting investi- 
gators. These latter objects are within the plan which the 
director, Professor Baird, hopes to see realized in the future, and 
it is earnestly to be desired that he may be able to accomplish so 
important a project. We must confess, however, to a sense of 
disappointment in learning that this was not the original basis on 
which the institution was created. It might, indeed, amount to 
this practically, were it not that manufactured products are in- 
cluded in the objects to be displayed in its halls; but the intro- 
duction of this item so overbalances the scales as to leave the 
future of scientific collections precarious, to say the least of it. 
We do not see how it is possible to avoid the crowding of the 
building with a kind of material which has no place in a scientific 
museum, and which can easily occupy all the space and consume 
all the money which Congress can grant it. The paternity of the 
project for a national museum was altogether scientific, and unless 
this object continues predominant, it is likely to divert the lives 
of a certain number of scientific men from their true channels, 
unless they abandon it altogether. For aught that we know, the 
situation may be past remedy, and the scientific element may 
_ already read the “ handwriting on the wall.” But we hope not. 
The most effective remedy would be to limit the exhibition of 
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