The Principles of.Mitscuiii Adniiiiislratioii. 221 



4. Material not g-eniiatieto the plan of a museum should be exchanged 

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

 and miprofitable to on 2 may b^ of the greatest value to another. 



E. — SVXOPTICAL AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS WITHIN MUSEUMS. 



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 geograjihical 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 liritish Museum of Natural 

 History, while an excellent type of the second class is the INIuseum 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. 



Man}' of the best school nuiseums 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 ptu'pose, as, for in.stance, in the well-known Tribinia 

 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, moinited in the 

 midst of their natural .surroundings, at vSonth Kensington, is one of the 

 mo.st .striking and memorable features in that nnisetun. A similar collec- 

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

 tury by Paolo Savi, though on a smaller scale, is no less prominent a 

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

 Museum at Naples, especiall\- that containing the collection of btirnt 

 manuscripts from the l)uried city, which are unique. Nimierous other 

 examples might readily l)e cited. 



F. — LOAN COLLECTIONS AND ITI.VICKATING MUSEUMS. 



I. Large museums may greatly increa.se their educational effectiveness 

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

 provided with nuiseiun facilities, and by rej)lacing 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 



