6
' THE RESPEKIAN
i "i
In entomology the crowding reaches its
maximum; a single room has to servo as
laboratory for twenty-two students, private
study and work room of the professor and
instructor in the pursuance of their investi
gations, and repository for the collections of
insects. The latter are already so largo that
the space is filled to overflowing, and yet its
enlargement is a matter of necessity for the
work of the department. Taxidermy, which
has heretofore been carried on under the su
pervision of this department, has been
crowded into a corner of a single room in
the basement, from which it must be dis
placed another year to make room for other
work. The situation may well bo summa
rized by saying that in each of the three de
partments numbers of students have been
dissuaded from taking work for which they
have applied, and another year will probably
show the necessity of an absolute limit to
the numbers in the courses.
In the museum itself the crowding is all too
apparent; in many aisles there is not room
for a double row of persons between the
cases, and it is often necessary to move one
row of cases in order to allow the doors of
the opposite row the necessary space in which
to open. Not only passage way, but air and
light, are cut off by the closely set cases, and
yet specimens keep coming in. More than
six thousand specimens loaned by a single
individual, and many others, are now in
place, and others would come were thoro
place to display them. It may be said that
our University lost last year a superb collec
tion of minerals valued at $20,000, which
had been promised but wore not sent on ac
count of the danger of fire in the present
museum building. The collection went
straight through Lincoln to Colorado Col
lege, which made provision for special fire
proof rooms to contain it.
. Other institutions, much smaller in attend
ance than ours, have already devoted spocial
buildings to this work, and the time has
come when in -view of the pressing necessity
of additional accommodation in those de
partments, Nebraska should do the same.
The space vacated by such a removal would
bo much better adapted to other purposes
than it is to its present use, and would
lighten the strain in other directions. The
new building need not bo an expensive one
to fit it for the work of these departments,
and would furnish them the room for growth
which is due such important 'subjects. En
tomology, with its intimate connection with
the welfare of the agricultural interests,
should have the means for carrying exten
sive studies in the life history of the various
insect enemies and for training a corps of
workers in this field. Geology stands in
equally close relation to tho study of soils,
of subjacent water-bearing strata, and tho
entire problem of irrigation, while zoology,
in its research into tho structure and develop
ment of tho animal form, lays tho founda
tion for medicine, and, in the much neg
lectod territory of parasitic forms, .gives
valuable aid for tho sanitary life of man and
the domestic animals.
Much might bo writton on tho right of a
museum to demand a place within the terri
tory of a university. The day of mere text
book instruction, in science, at least, is past.
Tho student must see tho forms for himself,
and this material, collected primarily for
class instruction, may properly be displayed
for the interest and teaching of the people to
whom tho University owes its existence.
Tho interest and stimulus to scientific work
which it gives to students at largo and to the
people justifies its inception and support. In
arousing public interest, in awakening a de
sire for knowledge, in securing for the Uni
versity and its work the hearty support of
the people of tho state, no factor can bo hold
in higher esteem than a University museum;
and to tho establishment of one tho pioneers
in natural science have given both early at
tention and arduous labors. Will Nebraska
fail to appreciate this need and to meet it,
as it has already been met by her sister
states?