34 



COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



[Jan. 



Neither of these bodies has any direct authority in the manage- 

 ment of the Museum, which lies fully in the hands of its Faculty, a 

 body whose status is recognized by the original articles of agree- 

 ment between the corporation of Harvard College and the said 

 Trustees. 



Over the appointment of this Faculty the Trustees have no con- 

 trol, their function being limited to holding the fee in the real estate 

 and the property in the collections, and to the management of about 

 one-quarter of the invested funds, the control of the other three- 

 quarters being in the hands of the said corporation. The manage- 

 ment by two corporate bodies of funds held for the same purpose, is 

 obviousfy unnecessary, and inconvenient. 



Your petitioners further represent that the larger part of the 

 funds now held for the use and benefit of the Museum are vested in 

 the President and Fellows of Harvard College, and arc held upon 

 trust in such a way that they cannot be diverted or in ai^ way 

 changed ; that it would greatly simplify the management of the 

 property to place it in the hands of the President and Fellows, a 

 fixed and established corporate body of well-known and defined 

 powers, and composed of persons charged with the duty of main- 

 taining and administering trusts of like character with those vested 

 in said Trustees. 



For these reasons, jour petitioners ask that an Act may be passed 

 by which, with the assent of the President and Fellows of Harvard 

 College, all the powers and trusts now vested by law in the "Trustees 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology " may be transferred to and 

 be vested in said President and Fellows ; that said Trustees may be 

 authorized and empowered to make, execute and deliver valid deeds 

 of conveyance of the real estate and property now held by them to 

 said President and Fellows, to hold upon the same trusts upon 

 which they are now vested in said Trustees. 



ABBOTT LAWEENCE, Secretary. 



