214 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



too large for such treatment, or otherwise incapable of being kept in 

 drawers. The usual solution (if so it can be called) is to place such 

 objects on public exhibition, because in the public galleries alone can 

 room be found for them, or the show-cases are the only receptacles big 

 enough for them. This method of storing such specimens is opposed 

 to all the requirements of the investigator, and has the additional 

 defects of disturbing the harmonious arrangement of the exhibition- 

 gallery, and of distracting the public with a multitude of unsuitable 

 objects. For all parties, then, it were better to shut off a portion of 

 the exhibition space and to devote it to storage alone. 



Passing now to the function of instruction, we have to see how a 

 museum may best serve students and amateurs. To its activities of 

 collecting and preserving, it must add a third — that of exhibiting 

 specimens. 



The remarks on collecting need no repetition. As regards the other 

 activities, two essentials must be kept in view. First, the need of the 

 student to handle specimens in certain instances. Secondly, access for 

 him to a fairly large series of accurately labeled specimens, the hand- 

 ling of which is not as a rule required. 



The objects to be handled, which need not be very numerous, must 

 be kept in such a way that their removal does not interfere with the 

 exhibited series, does not require the prolonged attendance of a member 

 of the staff, and does not give much trouble in unlocking, checking 

 and so forth. For this purpose, therefore, it is as well to have a 

 sample collection, stored in a workroom, or placed on its walls; and in 

 this room might be posted an attendant, who would usually be carrying 

 on his regular work. 



The series not as a rule to be handled might be kept either in cases 

 or in stop-drawers, under glass. Wliat is important is that it should 

 not interfere with or encroach on the public exhibits, for the follow- 

 ing reasons: The public distracts the student; the student, with his 

 chair and his own specimens, or his note-books, or his easel, gets in the 

 way of the public; the explanatory labels useful to this class of stu- 

 dent are too advanced for the general public and act as a deterrent; 

 and here again the mere multitude of specimens, frequently of re- 

 stricted interest, is but a source of weariness to the lay mind. 



On these grounds the rooms for the technical series should be set 

 apart, and should be in connection with a library whence books might 

 be taken into them. The specimens on exhibition might be as numer- 

 ous as space allow^ed, so long as needless duplication was avoided. 

 There would be no need for elaborate methods of mounting; it is only 

 essential that each specimen, with its label, should be clearly visible.* 



* Only to those familiar with museums will this remark appear a needless 

 truism. 



