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



group should be kept in a separate room, and as wall- space is 

 what is chiefly required for the reception of the drawers or boxes, 

 rooms like those of an ordinary dwelling-house would be best fitted 

 for the accommodation of such a collection and of the students by 

 whom it would be consulted — one great advantage of this plan being 

 that students would be uninterrupted by the ignorant curiosity of 

 the ruder class of general visitors, and not liable to interference from 

 scientific rivals. 



There are other considerations also which should be taken into 

 account in estimating the advantages of a collection thus preserved 

 and thus arranged. A particular value is attached to such specimens 

 as have been studied and described by zoologists, as affording the 

 certain means of identifying the animals on which their observations 

 were made. Such specimens ought especially to be preserved in 

 such a way as to be least liable to injury from exposure to light, dust, 

 or other extraneous causes of deterioration ; and this is best done by 

 keeping them in a state least exposed to these destructive influences, 

 instead of in the open cases of a public and necessarily strongly 

 lighted gallery. 



Again, the amount of saving thus effected in the cost of stuffing 

 and mounting is well worthy of serious consideration, especially when 

 we take into account that this stuffing and mounting, however agree- 

 able to the eye, is made at the cost of rendering the specimens thus 

 operated upon less available for scientific use. 



All these arguments go to prove that, for the purposes of scientific 

 study, the most complete collection that could possibly be formed 

 would be best kept in cabinets or boxes from which light and dust 

 would be excluded, in rooms especially devoted to the purpose, and 

 not in galleries open to the general public, and that such an arrange- 

 ment would combine the greatest advantage to the student and the 

 most complete preservation of the specimens with great economy of 

 expense. 



This being done, it is easy to devise the plan of a museum which 

 shall be the most interesting and instructive to general visitors, and 

 one from which, however short may be their stay, or however casual 

 their inspection, they can hardly fail to carry away some amount of 

 valuable information. 



The larger animals, being of course more generally interesting, 

 and easily seen and recognized, should be exhibited in the preserved 

 state, and in situations where they can be completely isolated. This 

 is necessary also on account of their size, which would not admit of 

 their being grouped in the manner which I propose with reference 

 to the smaller specimens. 



The older museums were for the most part made up of a number 

 of the square glass-fronted boxes, each containing one, or sometimes 

 a pair of specimens. This method had some advantages, but many 

 inconveniences — among others, that of occupying too large an 

 amount of room. But I cannot help thinking that when this was 

 given up for the French plan of attaching each specimen to a sepa- 



