Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/489

Rh year displayed on that occasion, and proved to be a very interesting feature.

The Academy of Sciences is formed from the scientific faculty of the National University at Córdoba, with the addition of other men of science in various parts of the country. The eminent zoölogist, Dr. Burmeister, of Buenos Ayres, is at the head of the Academy, and the members of the scientific faculty of the university are in the anomalous relation of being under the direction of the Academy rather than the university in their duties to the latter.

The secretary of the Academy is at Córdoba, his office being in the buildings of the university, where are also located the scientific collections of the Academy. These consist of:
 * 1) The Mineralogical Museum, containing a rich and very well arranged collection of minerals, altogether the best in the country. The Argentine minerals are particularly well represented and classified according to provinces. There are microscopic preparations accompanying many of the respective minerals and rocks. The collection occupies two rooms.
 * 2) The Botanical Collection is crowded into a room about thirty-six by twelve feet, and entirely too small to admit of appropriately arranging the numerous and interesting specimens.
 * 3) The Zoölogical Collection, which in condition of specimens and lack of arrangement is a disgrace to the curator of this department.
 * 4) The Physical Cabinet occupies three rooms and is a large and quite well arranged collection of apparatus.
 * 5) The Chemical Laboratory is in two of the basement-rooms, one of which is very large. It is well equipped, but the apparatus is not kept in the best order, nor the library which appertains to this department.
 * 6) The Library of the Academy is separated into sections, and the books distributed in the various rooms, where are located the various collections appertaining to the sciences of which they severally treat.

It is proposed soon to rearrange the collections of the Academy, put them in order so far as they are in need of it, and, where requisite, move them into more desirable and commodious apartments. They will, however, remain as now, the material for scientific illustration of the National University courses of instruction.

The glory of the Argentine Republic in the direction of work accomplished for science, and, as far as I am informed, of South America as well, is the National Museum at Buenos Ayres, of which the distinguished zoölogist, Dr. Burmeister, whose reputation is European as well as American, is the director. To a man of science this museum offers as great attractions as any of the leading ones in Europe, and there are many specimens found here, particularly in the department of paleontology, that are entirely unique. Remains of the huge animals of the sloth and armadillo families have nowhere been found so