31 



never been pi-operly recognized ; but has been fatally swamped or 

 Biuotbered, it is to be hoped not finally, by sectarian rivalship, tonic 

 sol-fa-ism, woman's claims, girls' rights to be tanght drawing and 

 how the laws of health and physiology are to supersede the needle 

 and cookery, and much more of such a tangled web of gibberish as 

 only a return to that balance of the faculties known as common sense 

 can sweej) clean away. 



But how are yoii to get the desirable specimens, and what are you 

 to do with them when they are at your disposal H Most of those 

 wildernesses miscalled Museums already possess a large quantity of 

 objects only awaiting and inviting intelligent attention. This will 

 consist in a careful prepai'ation, disj^lay, and description of them. 

 After having been seijarately gi-ouijed under their respective king- 

 doms — the mineral, vegetable, and animal — they must be arranged, 

 according to the method of their natural relations, in their respective 

 classes, orders, families, genera, and species ; then accui'atcly 

 numbered, ticketed, and catalogued. Thus the otherwise chaotic 

 mass of particular facts will fall into an orderly method, and be 

 always ready to convey an accurate knowledge to visitors. Still 

 further illustrations will be requisite, especially as regards funda- 

 mental and comprehensive phenomena, by preparations to disj^lay 

 the essential characters, at least, of the classes and orders, and of 

 the anat jmy and physiology of the members thereof; and a few 

 careful dissections will commonly be sufficient for this purpose 

 in each order. And now will arise the question, who is to do all 

 this work ? Certainly neither by nor under the direction of persons 

 quite incapable of it can we exj^ect any effectual labour of the 

 kind. But with proper encouragement students of and even adepts 

 in the different departments will, from a pui-e love of the subjects, 

 not only be found to perform all this, but probably more, and with- 

 out the least expectation of any pecuniary reward. Such persons will 

 surely add important preparations and other objects to the collection, 

 whenever it becomes manifest that their contributions will be duly 

 appreciated and cared for; indeed, with regard to at least one 

 Museum very zealous and skilful naturalists have only been pre- 

 vented f i"om giving such desirable aid by a knowledge that their work 

 would simply be "missing," contemned, smothei'ed, or destroyed, amid 

 the carelessness and the maze of misplaced rubbish, there under- 

 going a like fate, and most significantly and effectually warning 

 them, and others like them, what they might expect were they to 

 attempt such services. Fortunately minerals and antiquities are 

 commonly less perishable. 



Having discussed what is desirable and practicable, we come to 

 that which is neither one nor the other. And having somewhat 

 iiTeverently adverted to the rubbish of so many provincial Museums, 

 a further explanation may be necessary, and the more so as this 

 very accumulation of jumbled and useless materials is the sad 

 hete noire of these coUeetions, and so vigilantly intnasive as to 

 force admission and predominance against all reasons of fitness or 

 utility. Any disorderly materials when hurtful by being out of 

 place fall into the character of rubbish, just as any plant is a weed 

 when encroaching injuriously on the legitimate crop. In their 

 proper place they may be very valuable ; such they might be in the 

 great general collection of the British Museum, or in a botanical 

 garden. But nobody iu his senses can suppose that it is either 



