466 



NA TURE 



{Sept. 12, 1889 



imagine that they will be preserve! and mad-^ of use to the 

 world if once given t j such an institution. Their fate is, un- 

 f>rtunately, far otherwise. Duty, neglected, without label, 

 their identity lost, they are often finally devoured by insec'.s or 

 cleared away to make room on the crowded shelves for the new 

 donation of some fre^h patron of the institution. It would be 

 far better that such museums shiuld never be founded. They 

 are traps into which precious — sometimes priceless — objects 

 fall only to be destroyed ; and, what is still worse, they 

 bring discredit on all similar institutions, make the very name 

 of museum a byword and a reproach, hindering instead of 

 advancing the recognition of their value as agents in the great 

 educational movement of the age. 



A museum is like a living organism — it requires continual and 

 tender care. It must grow, or it will perish ; and the cost and 

 labour required to maintain it in a state of vitality is not yet by 

 any means fully realized or provided for, either in our great 

 national establishments or in our smaller local institutions. 



Often as it has been said, it cannot be too often repeated, that 

 the real objects of forming collections, of whatever kind (apart, 

 of course, from the mere pleasure of acquisition — sometimes the 

 only motive of private collectors), and which, although in very 

 different degrees, and often without being recognized, underlie 

 the organization of all museums, are two, which are quite 

 distinct, and sometimes even conflicting. The first is to advance 

 or increase the knowledge of some given subject. This is 

 generally the motive of the individual collector, whose expe- 

 rience shows him the vast assistance in forming definite ideas in 

 any line of research in which he may be occupied that may be 

 derived from having the materials for its study at his own 

 command, to hold and to handle, to examine and compare, to 

 take up and lay aside whenever the favourable moment to do so 

 occurs. But unless his subject is a very limited one, or his 

 means the reverse, he soon finds the necessity of consulting 

 collections based on a larger scale than his own. Very few 

 people have any idea of the multiplicity of specimens required 

 for the purpose of working out many of the simplest problems 

 concerning the life-history of animals or plants. The naturalist 

 has frequently to ransack all the museums, both public and 

 private, of Europe and America in the endeavour to compose 

 a monograph of a single common genus, or even species, that 

 shall include all questions of its variation, changes in different 

 seasons, and under different climates and conditions of existence, 

 and the distribution in space and time of all its modifications. 

 He often has to confess at the end that he has been baffled in 

 his research for want of the requisite materials for such an 

 undertaking. Of course this ought not to be, and the time will 

 come when it will not be, but that time is very far off yet. 



We all know the old saying that the craving for riches grows 

 as the wealth itself increases. Something similar is true of 

 scientific collections brought together for the purpose of 

 advancing knowledge. The larger they are the more their 

 deficiencies seem to become conspicuous ; the more desirous 

 we are to fill up the gaps which provokingly interfere with our 

 extracting from them the complete story they have to tell. 



Such collections are, however, only for the advanced student, 

 the man who has already become acquainted with the elements 

 of his science, and is in a position, by his knowledge, by his 

 training, and by his observing and reasoning capacity, to take 

 advantage of such material to carry on the subject to a point 

 beyond that at which he takes it up. 



But there is another and a far larger class to whom museums 

 are or should be a powerful means of aid in acquiring knowledge. 

 Among such those who are commencing more serious studies 

 may be included ; but I especially refer to the much more 

 numerous class, and one which it may be hoped will year by 

 year bear a greater relative proportion to the general population 

 of the country, who, without having the time, the opportunities, 

 or the abilities to make a profound study of any branch of 

 science, yet take a general interest in its progress, and wish to 

 possess some knowledge of the world around them and of the 

 principal facts ascertained with regard to it, or at least some 

 portions of it. For such persons museums may be, when well 

 organized and arranged, of benefit to a degree that at present 

 can scarcely be realized. 



To diffuse knowledge among persons of this class is the second 

 of the two purposes of museums of which I have spoken. 



1 believe that the main cause of what may be fairly termed 

 the failure of the majority of museums — especially museums of 

 natural history — to perform the functions that might be legiti- 



mately expected of then is that they nearly always confound 

 together the two distinct objects which they may fulfil, and by 

 attempting to combine both in the same exhibition practically 

 accomplish neither. 



In accordance with which of those two objects, which may be 

 briefly called research and instruction, is the main end of the 

 museum, so should the whole be primarily arranged ; and in 

 accordance with the object for which each spicimen is required, 

 so should it be treated. 



The specimens kept for research, for advancement of know- 

 ledge, for careful investigations in structure and development, 

 or for showing the minute distinctions which must be studied in 

 working out the problems connected with variations of species 

 according to age, sex, season, or locality ; for fixing the limits 

 of geographical distribution, or determining the range in 

 geological time, must be not only exceedingly numerous (so 

 numerous, indeed, that it is almost impossible to put a limit on 

 what may be required for such purposes), but they must also be 

 kept under such conditions as to admit of ready and close 

 examination and comparison. 



If the whole of the specimens really required for enlarging the 

 boundaries of zoological or botanical science were to be displayed 

 in such a manner that each one could be distinctly seen by any 

 visitor sauntering through the public galleries of a museum, the 

 vastness and expense of the institution would be quite out of all 

 proportion to its utility ; the specimens themselves would be 

 quite inaccessible to the examination of all those capable of 

 deriving instruction from them, and, owing to the injurious 

 effects of continued exposure to light upon the greater number 

 of preserved natural objects, would ultimately lose a large part 

 of their permanent value. Collections of this kind must, in fact, 

 be treated as the books in a library, and be used only for 

 consultation and reference by those who are able to read and 

 appreciate their contents. To demand, as has been ignorantly 

 done, that all the specimens belonging to our national museums, 

 for instance, should be displayed in cases in the public galleries, 

 would be equivalent to asking that every book in a library, 

 instead of being shut up and arranged on shelves for consultation 

 when required, should have every single page framed and glazed 

 and hung on the walls, so that the humblest visitor as he passes 

 along the galleries has only to open his eyes and revel in the 

 wealth of literature of all ages and all countries, without so much 

 as applying to a custodian to open a case. Such an arrangement 

 is perfectly conceivable. The idea from some points of view is 

 magnificent, almost sublime. But imagine the space required 

 for such an arrangement of the national library of books, or, 

 indeed, of any of the smallest local libraries ; imagine the incon- 

 venience to the real student, the disadvantages which he would 

 be under in reading the pages of any work fixed in an immovable 

 position beneath a glass case ; think of the enormous distances 

 he would often have to traverse to compare a reference or verify 

 a quotation, and the idea of sublimity soon gives place to its 

 usual antithesis. The attempt to display every bird, every 

 insect, shell, or plant, which is or ought to be in any of our great 

 museums of reference would produce an exactly similar result. 



In the arrangement of collections designed for research, which, 

 of course, will contain all those precious specimens called 

 "types," which must be appealed to through all time to deter- 

 mine the species to which a name was originally given, the 

 principal points to be aimed at are — the preservation of the 

 objects from all influences deleterious to them, especially dust, 

 light, and damp; their absolutely correct identification, and record 

 of every circumstance that need be known of their history ; their 

 classification and storage in such a manner that each one can be 

 found without difficulty or loss of time ; and, both on account of 

 expense as well as convenience of access, they should be made to 

 occupy as small a space as is compatible with these requirements. 

 They should be kept in rooms provided with suitable tables and 

 good light for their examination, and within reach of the necessary 

 books of reference on the particular subjects which the specimens 

 illustrate. Furthermore, the rooms should be so situated that 

 the officers of the museum, without too great hindrance to their 

 own work, can be at hand for occasional assistance and super- 

 vision of the student, and if collections of research and exhibited 

 specimens are contained in one building, it is obvious that the 

 closer the contiguity in which those of any particular group are 

 placed the greater will be the convenience both of students and 

 curators, for in very few establishments will it be possible to 

 form each series on such a scale as to be entirely independent of 

 the other. 



