352 The Scotish Naturalist. 



development may prove fatal to usefulness and success. It may 

 be devoted to any one of the sciences of botany, zoology, geology, 

 mineralogy, or archaeology, or may include all ; and this latter 

 is probably the better plan, for a time at least, as it permits of 

 collections being amassed, in anticipation of a possible division 

 into two or more museums should the accumulations increase 

 beyond a convenient size. The various departments in a general 

 museum of this kind must, of course, be kept carefully apart, not 

 mingled in one indiscriminate mass of confusion, as is too often 

 the case in collections that aim at including things of every 

 kind, and over which there is no proper supervision. 



But, assuming that sufficient care is exercised in keeping the 

 various classes of objects apart, there is a yet greater danger to be 

 guarded against in a provincial museum : and that is the effort to 

 include too much. The space that can be devoted to it is never 

 so great as to permit of accumulating very large collections ; and 

 if the attempt be made to include representatives of any group 

 from all parts of the world, this usually means that some other 

 group must remain ill-represented, if represented at all. Hence a 

 false conception of the relative importance of the various groups is. 

 apt to be formed. A still worse effect is that the products of the 

 district in which the museum is situated are apt to be set aside in 

 favour of objects whose chief recommendation is the distance 

 from which they have been brought. In this way some of 

 the most valuable ends that a museum should serve, in afford- 

 ing means for public education, are sacrificed to the desire for 

 novelties. 



It would be easy to quote the words of Owen, Phillips, Edward 

 Forbes, and other leaders in science ; but it will be preferable 

 merely to summarise the conclusions arrived at by them in regard 

 to the management of provincial museums. They all deprecate 

 efforts to make such museums general, as this is to attempt what 

 is far beyond the power of their promoters to accomplish. Those 

 who wish to see large and complete collections, or to study the 

 minuticz of any natural science, must resort to National Museums 

 such as exist in every civilized capital. These are supported by 

 national resources, and enriched by collections presented or be- 

 queathed to them by men of science, who have laboured and 

 accumulated their treasures in every country and ocean in the 

 world. Only such national institutions can hope to accumulate 



