23 



of them may hereafter be turned to good account, if it be ever 

 fc)und possible to get up a general series of type specimens ; but 

 for the present they must remain as they are — though all 

 duplicates should be carefully weeded out, and either sold, or 

 exchanged, or given away, as circumstances suggest. 



It is some indication of the altered opinion at the present day 

 about Museums, and of its being generally agreed that, except 

 in the case of large national establishments, unless kept within 

 certain fixed limits so that they can be properly displayed, or 

 devoted to some special purpose, they serve little for the 

 advancement of science — that many of the chief Natural Bistory 

 Societies in London, Avhich, when first instituted, made it a part 

 of their plan to have a Museum, have since abandoned the idea, 

 and parted with the greater portion of what they once possessed. 

 Even the Royal Society, when first established, had in view as 

 one of its objects the formation "of a Museum of Natural 

 Curiosities." With this end, the Society employed a collector, 

 Thomas Willisel, a cotemporary with Eay, to search out for them 

 "natural rarities, both animals, plants, and minerals ;" for which 

 purposes he is said to have been "the fittest man in England 

 both for his skill and industry."* This Museum, which was 

 preserved at Gresham College, and of which a Catalogue and 

 Description were published in 1681, by Nehemiah Grew, one of 

 the Fellows of the Society of that day, a curious old book 

 illustrated by plates, and now not often met with, t— has been 

 long since scattered. 



Of recent years, the Zoological, the Entomological, and the 



* Pulteney's History of Botany, vol. 1, p. 349. 



t Its title is— "Museum Regalis Societatis ; or, a Catalogue and 

 Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities belongiug to the 

 Royar Society, and preserved at Gresham College." Fol. pp., 386. 

 Plates 22. Loud. 1681. 



