40 MODERN MUSEUMS n 



of keeping them in this condition is, indeed, that they should 

 be preserved and not destroyed, as ultimately happens to so 

 many exhibited specimens. Much curatorial ingenuity may 

 be exercised in the methods of stowing and arranging such 

 specimens to the best advantage. The conditions of access 

 to them will be precisely those now accorded to books or 

 manuscripts in a library, prints and drawings in an art museum, 

 or the records and public documents in the Eolls Office or 

 Somerset House. 



As the actual comparison of specimen with specimen is 

 the basis of zoological and botanical research, and as work 

 done with imperfect materials is necessarily imperfect in 

 itself, it is far the wisest policy to concentrate in a few 

 great central institutions, the number and situation of 

 which must be determined by the population and resources 

 of the country, all the collections which are required for the 

 prosecution of original research. These are especially those 

 containing author's types or the actual specimens upon which 

 species have been established, and which must be appealed 

 to through all time to settle vexed questions of nomen- 

 clature. It is far more advantageous to the investigator 

 to go to such a collection, and take up his temporary abode 

 there while his research is being carried out, with all the 

 material at his hand at once, than to travel from place to 

 place and pick up piecemeal the information he requires, 

 without opportunity of direct comparison of the specimens 

 one with another. 



On the other hand, in local museums such collections are 

 not only not required, but add greatly to the trouble and 

 expense of the maintenance of the institution, without any 

 compensating advantage. Here it will be the duty of the 

 curator to develop the side of the museum which is educa- 

 tional and attractive to the general visitor and to all who 

 wish to obtain that knowledge which is the ambition of 

 many cultivated persons to acquire without becoming 

 specialists or experts. The study of the methods by which 

 such museums may be made instructive and interesting 

 offers an endless field for experiment and discussion, and 

 the various problems connected with it are treated of not only 



