6 COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Jan. 



passage of au Act authorizing the proposed change, being 

 cordially granted by the Legislature, the transfer of the 

 property to the Corporation of Harvard College was duly 

 made in accordance with said Act. [See the Appendix for 

 the petition of the Trustees, the Act of the Legislature, the 

 indenture between the Corporation of Harvard College and 

 the Trustees, and the receipt of the Treasurer for the property 

 so transferred.] 



The objects to be obtained by the proposed transfer of the 

 property in the hands of the Trustees of the Museum to the 

 Corporation of Harvard College are : 1st, to simplify the some- 

 what cumbersome organization by which the property devoted 

 to the Museum is managed, by placing the trust now con- 

 trolled by two independent bodies, under the care of a single 

 board; 2d, to enable the Museum Faculty by this change to 

 concentrate at the Museum the Natural History departments 

 of Harvard University, now only ( mechanically connected 

 with it ; 3d, to enable the Trustees of the Peabody Museum 

 of Archaeology to ere.ct an edifice eventually to be connected 

 with the Museum building originally planned by the late 

 Professor Agassiz, upon land assigned to them by the Corpo- 

 ration of Harvard College. 



From the very foundation of the Museum, the articles of 

 agreement between the Corporation of Harvard College and 

 the Trustees, showed that a most intimate connection between 

 the Museum and the College, so far as consistent with the 

 rights of the public, was contemplated. Without divergiug 

 from the spirit of the charter, modifications of these first 

 articles of agreement were subsequently rendered necessary. 

 This was partly a result of the growth of the establishment 

 and partly the desire on the part of the Trustees, fully shared 

 by the Corporation, to prevent by a concerted action, unnec- 

 essary duplication either in the instruction to be given at the 

 Museum, or in the collecting of the material necessary to 

 illustrate the several departments. With this object, the 

 instruction in natural history at the Museum has gradually 

 been assumed by the College in exchange for the facilities 

 given by the Museum in the way of collections and laboratories, 

 the Museum retaining, however, the general direction of the 

 educational interests. 



