STUDIES ON MUSETTMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 



589 



well suited for iiatuial history collections. The galleries are, for the 

 most part, imperfect. 



The showy wroiight-iron railino-, about 250 meters long, which 

 incases the stairs to the gallery, and the entire railing of the same, is 

 very obtrusixe. It represents large fern leaves and is by itself a piece of 

 art, but in this place it is too massive, too conspicuous, and conse(|uently 

 distracting. In the gallery the anthropological collection is installed 

 (fig. 11;^)) as far as the space allows, comprising the long-famous collec- 

 tion of skulls, casts, pictures, etc., relating to physical anthropology. 

 Besides this a prehistoric collection is in adjoining halls, above the 

 lecture room on the ground floor. This anthropological department 

 is not quite so elegantly exhibited and labeled as the paleontological 

 and osteological collection. 



Fig. 113. — Museum of Natural History, Paris. France. Part of the anthropological collection. 

 Gallery of second floor of the "Galeries d' Anatomic." 



It is planned to place the "galerie" which is next to l)e built closel}' 

 adjoining, so that the present collections can be extended, and room 

 ])e o])tained for those portions which belong to this section, which for 

 lack of space can not now be shown at all, such as the remainder of 

 the anthropological collection, the whale skeletons, etc. They here 

 also l)uilt too sparingly from the beginning, Init were wise, however, 

 to arrange the new museum so that it can l)e horizontally eidarged. 

 The style of architecture does not permit of its })eing extended in a 

 vertical direction. 



There is a i)arquet floor, very stylish to look at, but wearisome to 

 the visitor, since scarcely anyone is accustomed to walking on smooth 

 parquets without carpets IxMiig spread over them. 



The new "Galeries (rAnatomie" are, without doubt, a prominent 

 production in the line of museum technic. The}^ exhi])it a rare taste, 

 and the building closely approaches being a faultless model of its kind. 



