86 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



The whole Museum is more disposed for show than 

 use, and the most egregious want of method is' per- 

 ceptible in all the rooms — I mean scientific method ; 

 for the articles are well disposed for effect and the 

 whole place has a rich and finished look, the furniture 

 and materials being good, and in suflficient quantity. 



On the whole, I am much pleased with the Glasgow 

 collection, but the materials, which are good, might be 

 better arranged, and a great error common to most 

 collections is that all sorts of things are gathered, and 

 that they are laid out for show and not for use. 



Dr. Hannay could not meet me at the Andersonian 

 Institution, but sent a young gentleman, whom I 

 found exceedingly obliging and polite, and who intro- 

 duced me to ]Mr. Scoular, who is a keen zoologist. 

 The collection there is contained in a large circular 

 dome-roofed apartment, well lighted, and having a 

 gallery. It consists of fragments of everything under 

 the moon : — rocks, minerals, skeletons, fossils, skulls, 

 stuiFed quadrupeds, birds and fishes, reptiles in spirits, 

 coins, antique pottery, plaster casts, human crania, 

 skeletons of mammalia, etc. 



The skeletons are horrible. There is one of a small 

 elephant out of all proportion — all the rest are bad. 

 All the birds and quadrupeds and fishes are ill-stuffed 

 — yea, every one of them — at least I did not see one 

 that was good. They are ill -arranged too. The 

 people here may have science, for anything that I 



