241 i 



Journal of Applied Microscopy 



waved ceiling an unquestionably pleasing feature. The use of columns necessi- 

 tates, for artistic reasons, some cornice construction which, if elaborate, is a 

 dust collector. This is a real objection, and it must be a matter of selection to 

 the museum builder whether the bare, dustless ceiling is preferable to the attrac- 

 tive vista formed by columns in a hall, which if plafonded by cornice squares or 

 short arches (Fig. 31) does sensibly gather dust, and to that degree implies labor 

 and expense. The really attractive arrangement of columns in the mineralogical 

 hall of the Natural History Museum in London (Fig. 32) would, I think, be missed 

 if replaced by a hall without them. If columns are so built as to accommodate 

 the cases they can not be regarded as obstructive. This is the expression of a 

 personal preference. It must be so regarded. Certainly columns lose their 

 architectural charm if they rise to a flat ceiling and are not connected by cornice 



Fig. ;')1. — Present Geological Hall, showing columns (supported ceiling). 



mouldings, or are not finished effectively, themselves, with pleasing capitals. 

 At this point museum needs and architectural aims certainly should not clash, 

 and a hall can be given a delightful structural beauty without diminishing its 

 practical utility as a place for exhibition. Both the architect and the curator 

 may permit themselves to meet here upon a plane of mutual forbearance and 

 amity, if not of positive mutual admiration. 



The question of windows is a critical point of adjustment. They must be so 

 placed and of such size as to illuminate the hall, while not taking away too 

 much useful wall space, and their exterior treatment, although affording an 

 obvious temptation to the architect, must not become so elaborated as to dimin- 

 ish at all their necessary functions. 



There are, excluding skylight constructions, three stages of lighting a hall. 



