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vast extent and variety is not so important, as that they should be characteristic, 

 as, for instance, offering the typical characters of the genera among fossils and 

 animals, and a few well-marked types, in each natural order, among plants. 



b. Second story the zoological collection. In this story are arranged all the 

 animals, from the protozoa, the least highly organized, embracing sponges and 

 foraminifers, to the most highly developed mammal, man. The best authors 

 dividing them, according to their nervous system, into four great departments, we 

 would have, in the cases resting on the floor, all the radiated animals ; in the 

 second row of cases, the mollusks ; in the third, the articulates ; in the fourth, 

 the vertebrates. 



Not to occupy too much space with details, I will remark that each depart- 

 ment would have its lowest class in the left-hand case or cases, and these again 

 the lowest orders on the lowest shelves, beginning with the least highly organized 

 genera on the extreme left of each shelf. 



To aid the eye in learning the subdivisions, different colored cards could be 

 used, placed in little blocks of wood, a few inches long by one and a half wide 

 at base, and one high. The groove for insertion of the card is made by running 

 a sash-saw a few times to and fro, until we have sawed about half way down. 

 To denote subdivision into classes we may use large blue cards with the names 

 in large capitals, (as CLASS I: CEPHALOPODA;) the orders on smaller 

 yellow cards, with names in small capitals, (as ORDER ii: TETRABRAIVCHIATA ;) 

 tribes or families on red cards in italics, (as Family I: Nautilida ;) while 

 genera may be marked on white* cards, (as Genus: Nautilus,) and the specific 

 name, preceded by the generic, written on strong white paper, (as Nautilus 

 pompiHus.) Small specimens should be in small flaring pasteboard boxes. 

 When a shelf, perhaps four feet long and two feet wide, is to hold a number of 

 small specimens, in any department, it is convenient to have two sections made, 

 each half as long as the case, to slide on to the shelf, the section consisting of 

 three or four miniature shelves in terrace-form, each about three inches high and 

 four inches wide. 



I have been thus particular in the details of these departments only because 

 I am most familiar with them, believing many of the suggestions are applicable 

 to other branches with which I am less acquainted. In rooms intended for the 

 reception and examination of small objects, the windows should be very high, 

 and as near together as may be permitted without weakening the outer walls ; 

 perhaps a cast-iron front would permit the most light to be obtained. The win- 

 dows should be counterpoised, and made to let down from the top, if necessary, 

 with a cord passing under or over a pulley. 



B. North side of the building. This may be divided into three stories, and 

 have a middle wall running north and south from the long longitudinal wall, 

 thus affording at the summit of their junction a firm foundation to receive a 

 granite block for the bed-plate of the telescope appertaining to the observatory 

 on the roof. This cross wall divides each of the eighty feet long rooms into 

 two, of about forty feet by thirty. 



a. Lowest or first story. The west half is to be filled with agricultural im- 

 plements and models, all of the most approved form and useful kind. This 

 room should contain, as already remarked, a sample of all that we would find 

 in a first-class agricultural warehouse. Probably it would be best to have this 

 room terraced also. All the measures of capacity deposited here, such as half- 

 bushels down to pint measures, should have the cubical contents in square 

 inches legibly marked on them, so as, through the eye, to impress those num- 

 bers without any great mental effort. The east half of this story is devoted to 

 plants, which, in some instances, might be allowed to grow from the soil and 

 pass through openings in the floor, but would chiefly be arranged in flower-pots 

 on terraces, similar to those recommended for zoology. Thus the Cryptogamia 

 would be lowest, Thallogens on the left, with Protophytes and Fuci on the lowest 



