The Principles of Museiiui Adin in ist ration. 221 



4. Material not germane to the plan of a museum should be exchanged 

 or given to the other museums which have uses for it. What is expensive 

 and unprofitable to on 2 may hz of the greatest value to another. 



E. — SYNOPTICAI, AND SPKCIAL COI^LKCTIONS WITHIN MUvSEUMS. 



1 . Synoptical or dictionary collections are advantageous in museums of 

 every class. Their purpose is to teach some special lesson by means of a 

 small or complete series of specimens, arranged, labeled and provided 

 with all possible illustrative accessories. 



A synoptical series with a full complement of descriptive labels forms 

 for any science an elementary manual, the labels, forming the text, the 

 specimens the illustrations. 



Comment. — A collection of this kind in a natural history museum may either 

 illustrate the principles of classification and phylogeny, those of geographical distri- 

 bution, or may deal with the problems of comparative morphology. One of the best 

 of the latter classes is that in the great central hall of the British Museum of Natural 

 History, while an excellent type of the second class is the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, and of the first, that developed under the direction of Mr. Higgins in the 

 Liverpool Museum. 



Collections illustrating systems of crystallization and scales of hardness and color 

 are found in many mineralogical cabinets. 



Many of the best school museums are practically synoptical collections, and this 

 and nothing more is what they should always aim at. 



2. In some collections there is a similar separation of certain objects 

 with a less definite purpose, as, for instance, in the well-known Tribuna 

 in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. In many art museums there is a similar 

 effort to bring together their most valuable and famous possessions in one 

 central hall. 



3. There is no limit to the possibilities in the way of developing special 

 collections, and such collections, with judicious treatment, do more than 

 anything else to add to the attractiveness and individuality of a museum. 



The collections of British birds in attitudes of life, mounted in the 

 midst of their natural surroundings, at South Kensington, is one of the 

 most striking and memorable features in that museum. A similar collec- 

 tion in the Museum of the University of Pisa, formed early in this cen- 

 tury b)^ Paolo Savi, though on a smaller scale, is no less prominent a 

 feature of that smaller museum. There are several special halls in the 

 Museum at Naples, especially that containing the collection of burnt 

 manuscripts from the buried city, which are unique. Numerous other 

 examples might readily be cited. 



F. — LOAN COLLECTIONS AND ITINERATING MUSEUMS. 



I . L,arge museums may greatly increase their educational effectiveness 

 by lending special collections, well labeled and arranged, to towns not 

 provided with museum facilities, and by replacing these from time to time 

 with others. This has been done with success by the department of 

 science and art in Great Britain, and it has resulted not only in a 



