24 



FIFTY YEARS OF MUSEUM WORK 



learned that there were such things as vomers and maxillo-palatines, 

 I was able to give special attention to these fragile bones that are too 

 often destroyed, or seriously damaged, by the average preparator. 



And right here, I should like to emphasize the importance of manual 

 work, the desirability of using one's hands as well as one's head, a point 

 that is not often considered by the present generation, which lays an 

 undue stress upon mere education, forgetting that information is 

 not intelligence and that books cannot take the place of experience. 

 All through my career, mechanical ability has stood me in good 

 stead : if I had not been able to prepare and mount skeletons, I should 

 not have gone to the U. S. National Museum where I obtained my 

 scientific training, largely by actual work in my own time. 



It was also a decided advantage to be able to make my own drawings, 

 for, as all who have dealt with small, unfamiliar objects know, it is often 

 difficult to get them correctly rendered, quite aside from the fact that 

 institutions do not always feel like paying for them. And while I regret 

 to say that my figures mostly belonged in the category of "cuts rightly 

 called wooden," yet they had the merit of accuracy of detail. Photo- 

 engraving was just coming into use and this too was helpful since it did 

 away with one item of cost. 



My first promotion came in 1887 when I was appointed Assistant 

 Curator, Division of Comparative Anatomy. Subsequently I became : 



Curator, Department of Comparative Anatomy, 1893 

 Acting Curator, Section of Vertebrate Fossils, 1901 

 In Charge of Exhibits, Department of Biology, 1902 

 In Charge of Children's Room, 1902 



these four positions, as well as that of Chairman of the Committee on 

 Furniture and Fixtures, being held at one time. Right here it may be 

 noted that this multiplicity of positions brought no corresponding addi- 

 tions in the way of salary, which at the maximum was that of a Curator. 

 It did bring additional experience and opportunities for work in new lines, 

 though at the expense of any research in which I was interested. Among 

 other things it practically put an end to work begun on a Memoir on the 

 Stegosaurs, which was later taken up and admirably carried out by Mr. 

 Gilmore. 



Through sheer force of circumstances, I was diverted from the study 

 of birds to that of fossil vertebrates, an important factor being the 

 unfortunate quarrel between Professor Marsh and Professor Cope which 

 ended in the appointment of the former as Palaeontologist of the IT S 

 Geological Survey. Professor Marsh was a born collector but he was 



