66 SOME NEW BOOKS [sULY 
natural objects, rather more system in the exhibition of things artistic, would 
often not be misplaced. Among the contributions to which we allude, special 
attention should be paid to that by Mr. James Paton, Superintendent of 
Museums, Glasgow, giving an authoritative account of the inception, establish- 
ment, and maintenance of the “‘ People’s Palace” in that city. The question of 
loan exhibits in museums is always a difficult one, and those who have had to 
consider it will read with amusement Mr. Paton’s witty classification of lenders, 
and agree with him and Polonius that one should “neither a lender nor a 
borrower be.” Mr. John Maclaughlan, of the Albert Institute Museum, 
Dundee, writes on “Sculpture in Art Museums,” in a way that should be of 
much use to other provincial curators. Mr. William White’s paper on ‘The 
Individuality of Museums” is chiefly devoted to an exposition of the Ruskin 
Museum, of which he is the curator. It is followed by “Practical Notes and 
Suggestions on Modes of exhibiting Museum Specimens,” drawn from Mr. 
White’s experience in the same museum; several of these are original and 
valuable. 
Among articles that refer to all classes of museums, the place of honour is 
of course due to the address by the genial President, Alderman W. H. Brittain, 
who gives an account of the labours of the Museum Committee of the Sheffield 
Corporation. In a paper on “Provincial Museums and the Museums Associa- 
tion” Mr. H. Bolton suggests the compilation of a return of statistics as to the 
present condition of all museums in the United Kingdom. Such a statement 
would be of great value to curators, councillors, and educationalists, and we are 
glad to see that the Association has appointed a committee “to obtain 
information respecting museums on the lines of Mr. Bolton’s paper,” and that 
the General Secretary has been instructed to prepare a form to be sent to 
museums for their officials to fill up. 
Mr. W. E. Hoyle’s illustrated account of ‘The Electric Light Installation in 
the Manchester Museum ” is thoroughly practical, and since that museum seems 
to have solved many of the difficulties incident to artificial lighting, this paper 
should be studied with care by all who propose to adopt the electric light for 
similar institutions. ‘The cleaning of museums” may seem an obvious duty, 
and it is just conceivable that the cleaning and dusting of the public portions of 
most of our modern museums is adequately carried out; but Miss Clara 
Nordlinger, of the Manchester Museum, cannot emphasise too strongly the 
need for “‘a judicious and efficient daily dusting of the workrooms used by the 
staff” ; ventilation is usually lacking in such apartments, while the atmosphere 
is full of particles of arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and other poisonous and 
irritating substances. Such rooms are never properly cleaned, except, perhaps, 
in the Manchester Museum, and the health of the staff suffers in consequence. 
Papers of more restricted range, and dealing chiefly with matters of natural 
science, are the following :—Professor A. Denny of Sheffield, on ‘ The Relation 
of Museums to Elementary Teaching,” which contains nothing more novel than 
common sense. Mr. E. M. Holmes, of the Pharmaceutical Society, writing on 
“The Arrangement of Herbaria,” describes the methods adopted in various 
public establishments, and selects from them numerous useful suggestions. He 
favours the alphabetical arrangement for all small herbaria: undoubtedly it 
effects a great saving of time. In pursuance of this, he gives an alphabetical 
list of the natural orders of plants, with the numbers affixed to them in 
Bentham and Hooker’s “Genera Plantarum,” and with cross-references to the 
names used in Engler and Prantl’s “ Natiirlichen Pflanzen-Familien.” Dr. H. C. 
Sorby has yet another note on “ Marine Animals mounted as Transparencies for 
Museum Purposes”; many of his beautiful preparations are to be seen in the 
Sheffield Public Museum, where they have been exposed to the light for several 
years without deterioration. Mr. Harlan I. Smith, of the American Museum 
of Natural History, suggests a detailed classification for ‘“‘The Ethnological 
Arrangement of Archaeological Material” ; it is thought that it may lead the 
