museum was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted
themselves to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king's
expense. In the original organization of the museum the residents were
divided into four faculties,--Literature, Mathematics, Astronomy, and
Medicine. An officer of very great distinction presided over the
establishment, and had general charge of its interests. Demetius
Phalareus, perhaps the most learned man of his age, who had been
Governor of Athens for many years, was the first so appointed. Under him
was the librarian, an office sometimes held by men whose names have
descended to our times, as Eratosthenes and Apollonius Rhodius. In
connection with the museum was a botanical and a zoological garden.
These gardens, as their names imply, were for the purpose of
facilitating the study of plants and animals. There was also an
astronomical observatory, containing armillary spheres, globes,
solstitial and equatorial armils, astrolabes, parallactic rules, and
other apparatus then in use, the graduation on the divided instruments
being into degrees and sixths.