IV. 



Some Reforms in the Oxford University 

 Museum. 



IT is now, I believe, some ten years since Sir William Flower 

 inaugurated the reform of Museums on a truly scientific basis at 

 the Natural History Museum ; the cases in the Central Hall, 

 gradually filling with excellent preparations, have been a valuable 

 object lesson for all the scientific Museums in England. On somewhat 

 similar lines, Professor Ray Lankester is reforming those exhibition 

 cases containing zoological collections in the Oxford University 

 Museum which are under his control. 



So much has lately been said about the object and aim of 

 Museums that I need only point out those particular conditions 

 wherein this Museum differs from other similar public institutions as 

 regards the kind of collections to be exhibited. Here one need seek 

 neither to attract the nursery-maid nor to amuse children, nor 

 again need one trouble to satisfy the idle curiosity of the sight- 

 seer. There is, then, no necessity for tragic groups of stuffed animals, 

 for birds perched on cardboard rocks among artificial flowers. On 

 the contrary, the exhibits are to be strictly scientific, forming series at 

 once instructive and interesting to the general educated public, and 

 more especially to the real student of zoology. Surrounded as it is by 

 the various chemical, physical, and biological laboratories, the central 

 court is in the first instance a place of study. In such educational 

 collections it is essential that each object should be exhibited for a 

 definite purpose, should show what it is meant to show as clearly as 

 possible, and should be fully labelled in language technical so far as 

 is necessary for accuracy. The observer is not to be bewildered by a 

 number of specimens, but rather impressed by a few well-chosen 

 examples. 



For more than 30 years a large and valuable quantity of 

 material (chiefly vertebrates) has been accumulating in this Museum, 

 which, enriched with portions of the Ashmolean, Christ Church, 

 Hope, and other collections, forms a considerable store of specimens 

 to draw upon for exhibition. Hitherto the cases belonging to the 

 Department of Comparative Anatomy had been used rather for 

 storage than for display. The specimens were placed on shelves. 



