1877.] 



SENATE — No. 5. 



43 



[G.] 



The Committee appointed by the Faculty of the Museum to con- 

 sider the expediency of extending the Museum publications so that 

 they should fairly represent the scientific activity of the Natural 

 Histor}- Departments of the University, beg to report : — 



That, were the U niversity now beginning a system of publication, 

 it would be desirable that all memoirs, papers, etc., issued b}- the 

 different departments, should form distinct series in one set of Uni- 

 versity publications. This is, however, impossible, since the Observ- 

 atory, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Bussey Institute 

 and the Peabody Museum each have a distinct plan of publication, 

 from which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to deviate. 



They therefore recommend that the Museum publications be so 

 extended as to include all the departments lately incorporated with 

 it, retaining the Bulletin for the issue of shorter notices requiring 

 extensive circulation, and that a quarto series of memoirs, to include 

 the larger contributions to science, be substituted for the illustrated 

 catalogue. The heading of each memoir should indicate under 

 which department of the Museum it has been prepared. 



While the Committee recognize the impossibility of combining 

 the existing University publications in one series, they hope that 

 after all the different departments of the University have their 

 special publications, there may yet be established, in addition, an 

 octavo journal, to serve as the scientific organ of the University, 

 where professors would be able to give abstracts from the work done 

 in their departments, call attention to their needs, and come more 

 directly in contact with the public than they can hope to do through 

 the pages of the Proceedings of the American Academy or other 

 scientific journals whose editors generally reap the benefit of their com- 

 munications. Granting that it is not advisable to multiply scientific 

 periodicals, your Committee believe that Cambridge not only should 

 be, but must inevitably become, a scientific centre, and that the 

 work of its original investigators ought, in justice to them, to be 

 associated with the University whose officers they are. 



If the proper means be taken, one important result of this 

 increased activity would be the securing by exchange, in return for 

 all such memoirs published by the various departments, like pub- 



