The Principles of Mjcseu7n Administration. 215 



turers and other interested persons, and samples distributed for use in 

 experiment and comparison. 



Comment. — Examples of commercial museums may be found in the Musde de 

 Melle at Ghent; that of the Chamber of Commerce at Liege, founded in 1888, and 

 the Ottoman Commercial Museum, established in 1890, at Constantinople. These 

 are too recent, however, to afford many lessons. 



G. — NATIONAI, MUSEUMS. 



1. National museums contain the treasures belonging to national 

 governments and are legitimate successors of those treasure houses of 

 monarchs, princes, and ecclesiastical establishments which, until within 

 the last two centuries, were the sole representatives of the museum idea. 

 Every great nation now has a museum, or a group of museums, more 

 or less liberally supported, and intimately connected with the educa- 

 tional undertakings of the government; often, when there are several 

 great cities under one government, each has its own system of museums, 

 and these ferm the national system. 



2. In most countries of continental Europe the collections of the 

 national universities form a part of the national museum system and 

 are exceedingly eflScient when thus administered. 



3. National museums have opportunities which are not often shared 

 by those under state control, and their responsibilities are correspond- 

 ingly great. They should occupy specially those fields which are not 

 provided for in the other museums of the country in which they exist, 

 and should not only refrain from competition with these museums but 

 afford to them unreserved cooperation. 



Comment. — The principal purpose of a national museum must be, as Jevons has 

 well said, "the advancement of knowledge and the preservation of specimens of 

 works of art which hand down the history of the nation and the world." In other 

 words, to serve as museums of record and research. It is by no means impossible, 

 however, for them to render excellent service as educational museums, and quite 

 independent of other considerations, they can rarely afford to sacrifice the material 

 advantages gained from engaging in educational work. 



A serious obstacle to success in this direction is the vast amount of material which 

 they all possess, and the lack of space in which to admit it. This difficulty may be 

 partly overcome by a liberal assignment of objects to that portion of the study series 

 which is not on exhibition. 



A national museum may not, it is true, advantageously attempt to install its sep- 

 arate departments in such manner as to produce the unity of effect possible in small 

 specialized museums. This, however, is due to the fact that they are obliged to 

 classify their material more strictly, for the attractiveness of a specialized museum 

 grows largely from the fact that many illustrative objects are introduced into the 

 exhibition series which are not strictly in place. The extreme attractiveness of fish- 

 ery exhibitions, for instance, grows from the fact that so many interesting objects 

 only incidentally connected with the fisheries may be introduced as a setting for the 

 objects directly related to the fisheries. 



A result of the same kind is obtained in the Museum of Practical Geology in 

 London, where a selected series of products of all the arts deriving their material 

 from the mineral kingdom — glass, pottery, gems, metal work, and many similar 



