and Laboratory Methods. 



2567 



side by four sashes, and on the short side by two, its top is covered by a wooden 

 frame holding thirty-two ground glass lights. 



Composite and original or specific cases are being constantly devised, and it 

 would require a very greatly extended series of figures to represent the great 

 diversity amongst them, or the special purposes subserved by them. The 

 annual reports of museums are, fortunately, becoming rather valuable publica- 

 tions by reason of the profuse illustration, developed of recent years, in them. 

 A chronicle of otficers, patrons, gifts, and general statements of self-improve- 

 ment is now usefully supplemented by figures of the interior and suggestive 

 diagrams. The curator or director of a museum will find in these abundant 

 examples of case work. 



In the last annual report of the directors of the Field Columbian Museum 

 there is shown what appears, to the writer, a faulty feature in cases, viz., the 



Fig. S'2. — Assyrian Hall, Kensington Museum, London. 



elevation of their base by a few inches from contact with the floor. Cases 

 should set squarely, completely, on the floor of the halls, and be protected by a 

 slate base. Any shallow space beneath them furnishes a collecting spot for dirt, 

 fragments, and paper, and only increases the difficulties of exacting cleanliness 

 in the halls. 



An exceptionally curious case, taken from the same report, is shown in Fig. 

 80, where the partition holding the exhibits slides outward. This again appears 

 an awkward and unnecessary device, though perhaps the criticism would be 

 modified upon inspection of the construction of the case. It is designed doubt- 

 less, as in the instance illustrated, to protect the delicate white corals from 

 defacement by dust. It seems to possess this advantage undeniably. But 

 unless easily manipulated it might offer opportunities for an excess of language 

 quite irreconcilable with the appropriate moderation of scientific feeling. 



