OPENING ADDRESS.—MACGREGOR. 301 
who are jealous of demands upon the public purse, that the 
building which is necessary is not by any means so large as might 
appear at first thought, even if it be granted that we ought to 
aim at securing all the collections which I have specified as 
desirable. For of these collections, we have, and for some time 
to come are likely to have, but a small portion; and of those 
which we now have, and even of those at which I think we 
should aim, but a small portion would need to be displayed in 
cases so as to be available for use by the many. Very consider- 
able portions, which would be used only by the investigator, 
whether scientific or industrial, might be stored in drawers, thus 
being readily available and yet occupying but little room. 
Judicious selection may compress a large collecticn into compara- 
tively small space. Thus a relatively small building or section 
of a building, capable however of extension in the future, is all 
that is required. 
But collections and a building to contain them, form only the 
body of the museum. Its soul is the director or curator ; and as 
the body without the soul is dead, so collections, however large 
and well housed, are comparatively useless without an efficient 
curator. This is at once apparent if we consider what his duties 
are. For he has (1) to preserve his collections, allowing neither 
moth nor rust to corrupt. He has (2) to arrange them, taking 
into consideration the class and capacity of the persons for whose 
use the museum is intended, the extent and variety of the 
collections, the relative importance of the different departments 
of science to the needs of the community, and the space which is 
placed at his disposal. He has (8) to label his specimens so as 
to direct the attention of the observer to the main characteristics 
of the objects, and to show their relation to the great classes in 
which similar objects are found naturally to arrange themselves. 
He has (4) to add to his collections ; and in our case since a corps 
of paid collectors is out of the question, that means that he 
must himself make a scientific study of the province, going from 
time to time to different districts and making collections of its 
plants, animals and minerals. And (5) if the museum isto be 
provided with an industrial department he must familiarize 
