STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 



579 



exhibition in the "History of Animals Collection." It represents the 

 history or the ori_o-in of species, classification, variation, natural selec- 

 tion, instinct, development, etc. 



A conspicuous feature of the larj^e collections is the one represent- 

 ing- Irish archeoloo-y, with rich and rare series, among them a larj^e 

 number of gold ornaments. The cases here are to some extent better, 

 but they are closed by padlocks suspended on chains, the appearance 

 of which is not very pleasing. The gold treasure is inclosed in a 

 steel tire and burglar proof case, which is especially guarded. In 

 this museum, too, the policeman plays a gi-eat role. A valuable 

 antique gold ornament, discovered in Ireland in lS9f), was purchased 

 by the British Museum, but is claimed by Ireland." 



Since the art and art-industrial collections of the museum cover all 

 branches, as in the South Kensington Museum, I can not consider them 



Fig. 109— Science and Art Museuins, Dublin, Ireland. Natural Hi.^tory building. 



properly in a brief space. They are very notal)le (for exaniple, the 

 historical portion), hut their exhibition offers few individual features. 

 The ethnographic department, though it has many gaps, is rich in 

 old South Sea oljjects, though it is not yet thoroughly arranged. I was 

 nuu'h impressed with the good labeling in some of the cases. The large 

 type used in printing the labels is conspicuously better than the small 

 letters almost everywhere in use. They can be read without effort — 

 not so with the " South Kensington labels," which are distributed over 

 the entire country. , This use of large type is well worthy of imitation. 

 Another arrangement which appealed to me as worthy of adoption is 

 that in many of the cases there is hung a printed bibliography covering a 



«See Museums Journal, I, 1901-2, pp. 175, 2.38; compare also Proceedings of th, 

 Sodetif of Antiqnities, Scotland, 3d ser., X, 1900, pp. 4-7. It has been transmitted, in 

 1903, from the British Mnneum to the Dublin Museum, after a lawsuit which was 

 won by Ireland. See Nature, Nov. 27, 1902, p. 89, and Mnscums Journal, III, 1903, 

 p. 23. 



