36 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



be conveyed in a terse, concise, and definite i)liraseol<)gy, such as is 

 not demanded in any other chiss of writing, unless it may be the ijrepa- 

 ratiou of definitions for a dictionary. lie who writes definitions for a 

 dictionary, liowever, lias usually the advantage of having before him 

 numerous other definitions of the same term, which he needs only to 

 collate and rearrange. A good descriptive label, furthermore, should 

 do something more than impart information. It should be so phrased 

 as to excite the interest of the i)erson who is examining the specimen 

 to which it is attached; to call his attention to the i)oints which it is 

 most important that he should observe; to give him the information 

 which he most needs while looking at. the specimen, and to refer him 

 to the books by means of which he can, if so disposed, learn all that is 

 known upon the subject illustrated. 



The labels describing the specimens in a collection are intended to 

 take the place of the curator of the collection when it is impossible for 

 him to personally exhibit the objects and explain their meaning. 

 When collections were small and visitors were lew, the curator or 

 owner of a cabinet was accustomed, in i)erson, to conduct visitors 

 among the cases, to take the specimens in his hand, to tell their names 

 and where they came from, to indicate features of special interest, and 

 to answer questions. 



This was in some respects an ideal way, when the curator was a man 

 of wide knowledge and so much of an enthusiast that he took pleasure 

 in talking without limit. The method was not without defects, how- 

 ever, since the lecturer (for such he Avas, in fact) selected for exhibi- 

 tion a limited number of objects which interested him, or which he 

 supposed might interest the visitors, and gave the latter no chance for 

 selection. Furthermore, the arrangement could not be such as to con- 

 vey a seciuence of ideas, such as a selected ami well labeled series of 

 specimens can do, and the spoken descriptions, being as a rule full of 

 unfamiliar words, were not remembered. The printed label of to-day 

 may be read over again and again, and is often copied into the visitor's 

 notebook. Again, under the old system, examining a collection was 

 looked upon rather in the light of amusement than of study, and what 

 might have been possible in the way of instruction was rarely 

 attempted. 



In these days, when the curator attemi)ts verbal instruction, it is by 

 means of a lecture delivered in the ^luseum lecture hall, or, if a floor- 

 lecture, among the cases, surrounded by scores or hundreds of audi- 

 tors, wlio may either take notes or find the substance of the lecture in 

 some syll;il)us or printed text-book. 



While one visitor might listen to the Museum lectures, tens of 

 thousands pass through the halls without a guide. They must depend 

 entirely upon the labels for information; for guidebooks, if such have 

 been printed, are rarely bought, still more rarely used in the presence 

 of the specimens, and, though often taken home with the intention of 



