416 Miscellaneous. 
cease to be instructive at all for the largest number of visitors of such 
establishments. In arranging our collections. which are intended at 
the same time to be instructive for the million and to afford the 
amplest material for any kind of scientific investigations, it has been 
my aim to combine these two objects ; and as nothing of the kind 
has yet been attempted in any large museum, as far as I know, a 
detailed account of the plan, as adopted in our Museum, may be 
welcome to others. But as each class of animals requires a 
special treatment in a well-appointed museum, I propose, this 
year, to speak only of the arrangement of the Radiata, as these are 
the most advanced in our exhibition-rooms. 
With the view of fostering the systematic study of these animals 
and laying before the students in the smallest possible space the best 
ascertained results respecting their affinities, in the present state of 
our science, I have arranged special systematic collections, intended 
solely to exhibit the natural affinities of the members of the several 
classes. These systematic collections embrace carefully chosen re- 
presentatives of all the genera; but, with the view of making such 
collections as compact as possible, only one species of each genus has 
been introduced from each well-characterized zoological province, fre- 
quently to the exclusion of a large number of species which would 
only bewilder the student in his first attempt to master the natural 
affinities of the representatives of any given class. With this syste- 
matic collection are combined all the preparations intended to illus- 
trate the structural characters of the genera, the peculiarities of form 
which distinguish the different families, the complication of structure 
characteristic of the orders, as well as the mode of execution of the 
structure of the class as a whole. 
Next to the systematic collections, I have begun to make special 
faunal collections, chiefly intended to facilitate the study of the species 
and their geographical distribution. Thus removing’from the syste- 
matic collection everything which relates to the study of species, I 
hope to impress upon our students more forcibly than is generally the 
case the real importance of a proper investigation of the various de- 
grees and different kinds of affinities which bind all animals into a 
great systematic whole. These faunal collections have another ad- 
vantage ; they bring distinctly before the eye the character of the 
inhabitants of different parts of the world in their natural combina- 
tions, and that in a far more impressive manner than can possibly be 
attained by a mere nominative enumeration of species. To add to 
the interest of these faunal collections, I have placed here everything 
that may illustrate the peculiarities of the species, and have therefore 
taken care that they should embrace large numbers of specimens in 
every possible state of growth. The attempt at arranging these col- 
lections has already convinced me of their great importance. Our 
knowledge of the range of the natural faune is very imperfect ; and I 
have found it impossible to adopt, without modifications, any of the 
proposed divisions of the earth’s surface into zoological provinces. 
The divisions thus far proposed show plainly that they were circum- 
scribed by physical considerations, and not by the special study of 
