Dr. J. E. Gray on Museums and their Uses. 285 



complete collection of specimens that can be brought together, and 

 in such a condition as to admit of the most minute examination of 

 their differences, whether of age, or sex, or state, or of whatever 

 kind that can throw light upon all the innumerable questions tliat are 

 continually arising in the progress of thought and opinion. 



In the futile attempt to combine these two purposes in one con- 

 secutiTc arrangement, the modern museum entirely fails in both 

 particulars. It is only to be compared to a large store or a city 

 warehouse, in which every specimen that can be collected is arranged 

 in its proper case and on its proper shelf, so that it may be found 

 when wanted ; but the uninformed mind derives little instruction 

 from the contemplation of its stores, while the student of nature 

 requires a far more careful examination of them than is possilde 

 under such a system of arrangement, to derive any advantage ; the 

 visitor needs to be as well informed with relation to the system on 

 which it is based as the curator himself; and consequently the ge- 

 neral visitor perceives little else than a chaos of specimens, of which 

 the bulk of those placed in close proximity are so nearly alike that 

 he can scarcely perceive any difference between them, even supposing 

 them to be placed on a level with the eye, while the greater number 

 of those which are above or below this level are utterly unintel- 

 ligible. 



To such a visitor, the numerous species of rats, or squirrels, or 

 sparrows, or larks that crowd the shelves, from all parts of the 

 world, are but a rat, a squirrel, a sparrow, or a lark ; and this is 

 still more especially the case with animals of a less marked and less 

 known type of character. Experience has long since convinced me 

 that such a collection so arranged is a great mistake. The eye both 

 of the general visitor and of the student becomes confused by the 

 numJ>er of the specimens, however systematically they may be brought 

 together. 



The very extent of the collection renders it difficult even for the 

 Student, and much more so for the less scientific visitor, to discover 

 any particular specimen of which he is in quest ; and the larger the 

 collection, the greater this difficulty becomes. Add to this the fact 

 that all specimens, but more especially the more beautiful and the 

 more delicate, are speedily deteriorated, and in some cases destroyed 

 for all useful purposes, by exposure to light, and that both the skins 

 and bones of animals are found to be much more susceptible of 

 measurement and comparison in an unstuffcd or unmounted state, 

 and it will be at once apparent why almost all scientific zoologists 

 have adopted for their own collections the simpler and more advan- 

 tageous plan of keeping their specimens in boxes or in drawers, 

 devoted each to a family, a genus, or a section of a genus, as each 

 individual case may require. 



Thus preserved and thus arranged, the most perfect and the 

 most useful collection that the student could desire would occupy 

 comparatively a small space, and by no means require large and 

 lofty halls for its reception. As it is desirable that each large 



