4 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



departments of the museum are iu full blast, all these analyses can be, 

 and are, actually being carried on. 



As to that method of instruction, which must, however, be paramount 

 to everything else, many new methods will be observed. If a certain 

 product is to be exhibited as complete in itself, a reqmsite of such an 

 exhibit will be that all the stages of such a manufactured article will 

 be shown. Every step which can illustrate the perfected progress will 

 be forthcoming. In the same case will be shown the very books which 

 contain information on this particular substance, or, if not the books 

 themselves, references to the volume and the page. A series, then, of 

 labels, exhaustive in character, are to accompany all objects. 



Materials as they are gathered serve at the same time as a basis for 

 scientitic research. It is not only for those who are satisfied with the 

 commercial aspect of things in general that the museum serves a great 

 purpose, but its collections react on the man of pure science. It is, 

 then, in addition to being a museum of deposit or record, one of most 

 active research. It can never be languid or wanting in interest, for the 

 elements of life must exist from both without and within. 



With such a scheme comes in the practical working of it. How, hav- 

 ing to-day gucii a vast assemblage of objects, with an avalanche coming, 

 how shall all these be exposed so " as to enable visitors to make their 

 examinations with the least possible fatigue of eye and limb *? How are 

 objects to be labeled in the most concise and instructive way, so as to 

 make the museum, as a whole, as beautiful and attractive as possible?" 



Prof. G. Brown Goode, under whose care the practical work of the 

 museum is being carried out, and who has given a great deal of atten- 

 tion to the classification, writes as follows : " The new building more 

 than meets exi)ectation. The illumination is perfect, the amount of 

 space available for exhibition purposes is undoubtedly the maximum for 

 a building of the size, and the disposition of the exhibition hall on a 

 single level, directly upon the surface of the earth, proves to be of great 

 importance to visitors and to those who have in hand the work of 

 arranging the collections." * 



None but those thoroughly acquainted with the exigencies of a col- 

 lection can appreciate the amount of thought necessary to construct 

 such an apparently simple thing as a case. If it is to be substantial it 

 must not be too bulky or overornamented, as one does not visit a 

 museum to admire cabinet-work, but the objects it contains. It must 

 be so arranged as to take in all the light. It must be quite air-tight, so 

 as not to admit dust or moisture. With such a vast hall as that of the 

 National Museum, where there are no partitions, the roof being held 

 by square supports, the cases will mark the divisions. These cases 

 must be so arranged as to be movable. In size they should bear a defi- 

 nite proportion to that of the hall. As there are to be lecture spaces 

 left iu the museum, these cases must be so built as to be readily trans- 

 poriable or interchangeable. In this way a lecturer may treat a sub- 



