SYNOPSIS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 557 



A favorite part of his plan was a room 

 which he liked to call his synoptic room. 

 Here was to be the most compact and yet the 

 fullest statement in material form of the ani- 

 mal kingdom as a whole, an epitome of the 

 creation, as it were. Of course the specimens 

 must be few in so limited a space, but each 

 one was to be characteristic of one or other of 

 the various groups included under every large 

 division. Thus each object would contribute 

 to the explanation of the general plan. On 

 the walls there were to be large, legible in- 

 scriptions, serving as a guide to the whole, 

 and making this room a simple but compre- 

 hensive lesson in natural history. It was in- 

 tended to be the entrance room for visitors, 

 and to serve as an introduction to the more 

 detailed presentation of the same vast subject, 

 given by the faunal and systematic collections 

 in the other exhibition rooms. 



The standard of work involved in this 

 scheme is shown in many of his letters to his 

 students and assistants, to whom he looked 

 for aid in its execution. To one he writes : 

 " You will get your synoptic series only after 

 you have worked up in detail the systematic 

 collection as a whole, the faunal collections in 

 their totality, the geological sequence of the 



