58 NATURALISTS' ASSISTANT. 



same course may be pursued when sending specimens from 

 the field or from one museum to another. With fishes so 

 sent it is usual to place the labels under the gill covers. 



Smaller specimens may be stored in cork-stoppered bot- 

 tles. A cheap way of obtaining these is to buy the empty 

 morphine and quinine bottles of the apothecary. These 

 are of good glass and have wide mouths. Corks for these 

 may readily be rendered tight by immersing in melted par- 

 afifine, or better in paraffine dissolved in benzine. These 

 storage bottles should be so arranged that any desired spec- 

 imen can readily be found. 



One thing that should be constantly kept in mind in the 

 museum is that it is as easy to have too much on exhibition 

 as too little. The primary object of a collection is to in- 

 struct, but with many confusion only results. Every speci- 

 men should not be on exhibition ; nor should every species 

 or genus. It should be the object of the curator to make 

 the collection typical; to select those species which best 

 illustrate the larger groups, while all others are relegated 

 to drawers, boxes, etc., where they will be readily accessible to 

 the special student but will not aid in confusing the average 

 museum visitor. 



The space thus gained should be utilized by labels and 

 cards, conveying in plain language the characters of the va- 

 r'.ous groups. It is also well to place in the cases drawings 

 illustrating the structure and growth of the various classes of 

 the animal kingdom. These may be plain or colored ac- 

 cording to nature, or conventionally, to show more clearly 



