286 Dr. J. E. Gray on Museums and thet Uses. 
group should be kept in a separate room, and as wall-space is 
what is chiefly required for the reception of the drawers or boxes, 
rooms like those of an ordinary dwelling-house would be best fitted 
for the accommodation of such a collection and of the students by 
whom it would be consulted—one great advantage of this plan being 
that students would be uninterrupted by the ignorant curiosity of 
the ruder class of general visitors, and not liable to interference from 
scientific rivals. 3 
There are other considerations also which should be taken int 
account in estimating the advantages of a collection thus preserved 
and thus arranged. A particular value is attached to such specimens 
as have been studied and described by zoologists, as affording the 
certain means of identifying the animals on which their observations 
were made. Such specimens ought especially to be preserved in 
such a way as to be least liable to injury from exposure to light, dust, 
or other extraneous causes of deterioration ; and this is best done by 
keeping them in a state least exposed to these destructive influences, 
instead of in the open cases of a public and necessarily strongly 
lighted gallery. 
Again, the amount of saving thus effected in the cost of stuffing 
and mounting is well worthy of serious consideration, especially when 
we take into account that this stuffing and mounting, however agree- 
able to the eye, is made at the cost of rendering the specimens thus 
operated upon less available for scientific use. 
All these arguments go to prove that, for the purposes of scientific 
study, the most complete collection that could possibly be formed 
would be best kept in cabinets or boxes from which light and dust 
would be excluded, in rooms especially devoted to the purpose, and 
not in galleries open to the general public, and that such an arrange- 
ment would combine the greatest advantage to the student and the 
most complete preservation of the specimens with great economy of 
expense. 
This being done, it is easy to devise the plan of a museum which 
shall be the most interesting and instructive to general visitors, and 
one from which, however short may be their stay, or however casual 
their inspection, they can hardly fail to carry away some amount of 
valuable information. 
The larger animals, being of course more generally interesting, 
and easily seen and recognized, should be exhibited in the preserved 
state, and in situations where they can be completely isolated. This 
is necessary also on account of their size, which would not admit of 
their being grouped in the manner which I propose with reference 
to the smaller specimens. 
The older museums were for the most part made up of a number 
of the square glass-fronted boxes, each containing one, or sometimes 
a pair of specimens. This method had some advantages, but many 
inconveniences—among others, that of occupying too large an 
amount of room. But I cannot help thinking that when this was 
given up for the French plan of attaching each specimen to a sepa- 
