Dr. J.E. Gray on Museums and their Uses. 287 
rate stand, and marshalling them like soldiers on the shelves of a 
large open case, the improvement was not so great as many suppose; 
and this has become more and more evident since the researches of 
travellers and collectors have so largely increased the number of 
known species, and of species frequently separated by characters so 
minute as not to be detected without careful and close examination. 
Having come to the conclusion that a museum for the use of the 
general public should consist chiefly of the best-known, the most 
marked, and the most interesting animals, arranged in such a way as 
to convey the greatest amount of instruction in the shortest and 
most direct manner, and so exhibited as to be seen without con- 
fusion, I am very much disposed to recur to something like the old 
plan of arranging each species or series of species in a special case, 
to be placed either on shelves or tables, or in wall-cases, as may be 
found most appropriate, or as the special purpose for which each 
case is prepared and exhibited may seem to require. 
But instead of each case, as of old, containing only a single speci- 
men, it should embrace a series of specimens, selected and arranged 
so as to present a special object for study; and thus any visitor, 
looking at a single case only, and taking the trouble to understand 
it, would carry away a distinct portion of knowledge, such as in the 
present state of our arrangements could only be obtained by the 
examination and comparison of specimens distributed through dis- 
tant parts of the collection. 
Every case should be distinctly labelled with an account of the 
purpose for which it is prepared and exhibited; and each specimen 
contained in it should also bear a label indicating why it is there 
placed. 
I may be asked, why should each series of specimens be contained 
in a separate case? but I think it must be obvious that a series of 
objects exhibited for a definite purpose should be brought into close 
proximity, and contained in a well-defined space ; and this will best 
be done by keeping them in a single and separate case. There is 
also the additional advantage that whenever, in the progress of dis- 
covery, it becomes desirable that the facts for the illustration of 
which the case was prepared should be exhibited in a different man- 
ner, this can easily be done by rearranging the individual case with- 
out interfering with the general arrangement of the collection. I 
believe that the more clearly the object is defined and the illustra- 
tions kept together, the greater will be the amount of information 
derived from it by the visitor and the interest he will feel in ex- 
amining it. 
Such cases may be advantageously prepared to show— 
The classes of the animal kingdom, by means of one or more 
typical or characteristic examples of each class. 
The orders of each class. 
The families of each order. 
The genera of each family. 
The sections of each genus. 
