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THE COLLECTIONS IN THE SOCIETY'S MUSEUM. 



By E. Comber, f.z.s. 

 (Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 24th September 1903.) 



The question of the collections in the Society's museum is one which requires 

 to be brought somewhat prominently before the members at the present time, 

 but before turning to our own collections I should like first of all to draw atten- 

 tion to the subject of museums in general, so that we may the more clearly try 

 to arrive at some conclusion as to how far our collections fulfil the purposes for 

 which they have been brought together, try to discover where our weak spots 

 are, and to come to some decision as to how we should set about improving them. 

 In this I shall largely avail myself of the words that have from time to time 

 been used by one of the greatest authorities on museum management and 

 arrangement — vis., the late Sir William Flower, who was in charge of the British 

 Museum (Natural History) for many years — for I feel that no words of mine 

 can so clearly and concisely express the points that he was always trying to im- 

 press upon those who had the control and management of other similar institu- 

 tions, whether they were the museums of large rich towns, of small villages, of 

 scientific societies or of private individuals. 



Let us see then what his advice was after his lifelong experience. On one 

 occasion he said : " The first consideration in establishing a museum, large or 

 " small, ... is that it should have some definite purpose to fulfil ; and the next is 

 " that means should be forthcoming not only to establish but also to maintain the 

 " museum in a suitable manner to fulfil that purpose. Some persons are enthi:- 

 " siastic enough to think that a museum is in itself so good an object that they 

 " have only to provide a building and cases and a certain number of specimens, 

 " no matter exactly what, to fill them, and then the thing is done ; whereas the 

 " truth is the work has only then begun. What a museum really depends upon 

 " for its success and usefulness is not its building, nor its cases, not even its speci- 

 " mens — but its curator. He and his staff are the life and soul of the institution 

 " upon whom its whole value depends ; and yet in many — I may say most of our 

 " museums — they are the last to be thought of. The care, the preservation, the 

 "naming of ths specimens are either left to voluntary effort ... or a grievously 

 " undersalaried and consequently uneducated official is expected to keep in order 

 " to clean, dust, arrange, name and display, in a manner which will contribute to 

 "the advancement of scientific knowledge, collections ranging in extent over 

 " almost every branch of human learning. . . . 



" Valuable specimens not unf requently find their way into museums thus man. 

 " aged. Their public-spirited owners fondly imagine that they will be preserved 

 " and made of use to the world if once given to such an institution. Their fate 

 " is, unfortunately, far otherwise. Dirty, neglected, without label, their iden- 

 tity lost, they are often finally devoured by insects or cleared away to make 

 " room on the crowded shelves for the new donation of some fresh patron of the 

 " institution. It would be far better that such museums should never be found- 

 " ed. They are traps into which precious — sometimes priceless — objects fall 



