10 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



and along with these, diagrams, showing the progress of 

 development of the group throughout past time, as far as 

 yet known. 



This mode of attractive and instructive exhibition 

 might be well carried out in the Mammalia, Birds, and 

 Insects ; less perfectly in the Reptiles and Fishes, whose 

 colours can hardly be well preserved except in spirits. 

 Even here, however, by using oblong earthenware vessels 

 with glass fronts, instead of the usual bottles, many fishes 

 and marine animals could be exhibited in life-like attitudes 

 and with their colours well preserved. Mollusca may be 

 well illustrated by means of models of the animals, as also 

 may the marine and fresh-water Zoophytes. The more 

 minute and delicate animals should be shown by means 

 of a series of cheap microscopes or large lenses, fixed in 

 suitable positions ; and with a careful outline of the 

 animal's history on a tablet or card, close by. 



Connected with this, as with the botanical division of 

 the museum, there should be a students'" department, to 

 which all should have free access who wished to obtain 

 more detailed knowledge. Here would be preserved, in 

 the most compact and accessible form, in cabinets or 

 boxes, all specimens acquired by the museum and which 

 were not required or were not adapted for exhibition in the 

 popular department. Here, too, should be formed a 

 complete local or British collection of indigenous animals, 

 according to the extent and means of the institution, with 

 the best zoological library of reference that could be 

 obtained. In this department, donations of almost any 

 kind would be acceptable ; for, when not required for 

 popular exhibition, an immense number of specimens can 

 be conveniently and systematically arranged in a very 

 limited space, and for purposes of study or for identification 

 of species are almost sure to be of value. One of the 

 greatest evils of most local museums is thus got rid of — 

 the giving offence by refusing donations, or being forced 

 to occupy much valuable space with such as are utterly 

 unfit for popular exhibition. 



Ethnology. — We now come to the last department of 

 our ideal museum, and it is one to which a large or a 



