4 



many years, owing to the inability of the authorities to appoint 

 men whose duties should lie in this direction. 



For more than twenty years it has been my aim gradually to 

 provide room and materials for such a purpose, and it is not 

 encouraging to find that the time and means thus spent have 

 been so unproductive of better results. 



It is not the province of the Museum to provide the necessary 

 instructors, — that belongs to the University ; but it is time that 

 the authorities of the Museum should protest against the ascen- 

 dency of the Undergraduate instruction, which threatens to over- 

 come the higher purposes of the institution, and to render it 

 comparatively useless for the progress of science and for the more 

 advanced studies. It is time that the original aim of the Museum 

 should be reasserted, and its highest usefulness be made avail- 

 able. The appointment by the University of half a dozen men 

 to the Natural History Department, to carry on original investi- 

 gation themselves, and to direct the work of advanced students, 

 would go far towards placing the Museum on a more active 

 plane. We need teachers in Entomology, in Vertebrate and 

 Invertebrate Zoology and Palaeontology, as well as in Marine 

 Zoology ; additional assistants to the Professors and Instructors 

 already teaching are needed to fill the gaps in our advanced in- 

 struction. One of the first requisites in carrying out such plans 

 is the removal of the Undergraduate instruction to a new part 

 of the University Museum, the space for which remains in the 

 vacant southwest corner of the Oxford Street facade of the 

 Museum. 



It is a surprise to me to find how little seems to be known in 

 this country regarding the publications of the Museum, and the 

 facilities for teaching in our Natural History Laboratories. In 

 a recent circular of information issued by the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion, 1 the account given of the Museum Laboratories is very un- 

 satisfactory. This, however, is explained from the unscientific 

 method of preparation of the circular. Our Annual Reports 

 have evidently not been consulted, and the mere sending out of 

 circulars and blanks to be filled up can never supply the requi- 



1 Bureau of Education Circular of Information No. 9, 1891. Biological Teaching 

 in the Colleges of the United States, by John P. Campbell, A. B., Ph. D. (Johns 

 Hopkins), Professor of Biology in the University of Georgia. Washington, Govern- 

 ment Printing Office, 1891. 



