1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 57 



the President BUggests that a committee should be appointed to report 

 upon two questions : (1) " What is the best form and arrangement of 

 rooms in a building intended to serve as a museum ? (2) What is 

 the best way of exhibiting specimens, according to their various kinds, 

 in a museum V The rest of the address is taken up with an account 

 of the state of museums at Oxford, and of Prof. Lankester's own 

 attempt to follow the principles of Flower and Brown Goode in the 

 face of considerable difficulties. 



Entomologists will welcome Prof. Poulton's account of the 

 methods of setting and labelling Lepidoptera for museums. Prof. 

 Miers' description of the arrangement of the mineral collection in the 

 University Museum will also be of much service to those in charge of 

 similar collections, although the philosophical scheme adopted by him 

 is, as Mr Rudler said, hardly suitable for collections intended for the 

 use of miners and such practical folk. A paper of somewhat novel 

 character is that by Mr Harlan J. Smith, of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, on Popular Museum Exhibits. Everyone knows 

 that there are a number of people of various ages who use museums 

 as promenades, doss-houses, or playgrounds. If the attention of some 

 of these can be arrested by a sensational exhibit they may perhaps be 

 led to look at something more, and thus the museum may be brought 

 into contact with an entirely fresh class. 



The recognition of museums by the Council of Education has set 

 fresh problems before the museum curator, and gives rise to an in- 

 teresting discussion opened by Mrs Tubbs, former member of the 

 Hastings School Board. Another discussion of much importance was 

 that of Dr Flinders Petrie's scheme of a federal staff for museums, 

 that is to say, a band of peripatetic specialists who should visit 

 museum after museum, naming specimens, lecturing, and supervising 

 the exhibits in his own particular department. Mr Goodrich's 

 valuable notes on museum preparations have already found publica- 

 tion in our pages. 



The report of the meeting is followed by various " General Notes " 

 by the secretary, Mr E. Howarth. Among these are short abstracts 

 based on " reports and handbooks received from various museums 

 belonging to the Association." We should have thought that it would 

 have been of more value to members of the Association to have given 

 them an account of museums that had not yet entered the select 

 circle ; but Mr Howarth, we are glad to see, considers that full 

 information upon these matters can always be obtained from Natural 

 Science, " an indispensable monthly journal in all museums," so that 

 we are not inclined to insist upon our criticism. We are glad, too, 

 to notice that the Association has now opened its membership to 

 museums outside the limits of the United Kingdom, and that advan- 

 tage of this has been taken by the museums of Baroda, Colombo, 

 Jamaica, Western Australia, Salt Lake City, and the Australian 

 Museum. We are, however, somewhat surprised to see how com- 

 paratively few museums of the United Kingdom have availed them- 

 selves of the advantages offered by this Association. Does this point 

 to indifference on the part of their curators, or to some fault of which 

 we are not aware in the working of the Association ? Or is it merely 

 due to want of advertisement ? 



