i SPECIMENS FOR EXHIBITION 17 



to their own work, can be at hand for occasional assistance 

 and supervision 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. 



On the other hand, in a collection arranged for the 

 instruction of the general visitor, the conditions under which 

 the specimens are kept should be totally different. In the 

 first place, their numbers must be strictly limited, according to 

 the nature of the subject to be illustrated and the space avail- 

 able. None must be placed too high or too low for ready 

 examination. There must be no crowding of specimens one 

 behind the other, every one being perfectly and distinctly 

 seen, and with a clear space around it. Imagine a picture- 

 gallery with half the pictures on the walls partially or entirely 

 concealed by others hung in front of them ; the idea seems 

 preposterous, and yet this is the approved arrangement of 

 specimens in most public museums. If an object is worth 

 putting into a gallery at all, it is worth such a position as will 

 enable it to be seen. Every specimen exhibited should be good 

 of its kind, and all available skill and care should be spent 

 upon its preservation and rendering it capable of teaching the 

 lesson it is intended to convey. And here I cannot refrain 

 from saying a word upon the sadly-neglected art of taxidermy, 

 which continues to fill the cases of most of our museums with 

 wretched and repulsive caricatures of mammals and birds, out 

 of all natural proportions, shrunken here and bloated there, 

 and in attitudes absolutely impossible for the creature to have 

 assumed while alive. Happily there may be seen occasionally, 

 especially where amateurs of artistic taste and good knowledge 

 of natural history have devoted themselves to the subject, 

 examples enough to show that an animal can be converted after 

 death, by a proper application of taxidermy, into a real lifelike 

 representation of the original, perfect in form, proportions, and 

 attitude, and almost, if not quite, as valuable for conveying 

 information on these points as the living creature itself The 



c 



