II VIENNA AND BERLIN MUSEUMS 45 



professedly devoted to natural history, while the preserved 

 remains of the ancient Egyptians are treated as works of art. 



Before leaving Vienna I should like to refer to the splendid 

 specimens of taxidermy by the artist Hodek, the choicest 

 examples of whose work are contained in a special collection, 

 occupying a small separate room, consisting of sporting 

 trophies of the late Crown Prince, Eudolph. Otherwise the 

 general level of the specimens in the galleries is in no wise 

 remarkable. The birds have the advantage of being mounted, 

 not upon turned wooden stands of uniform pattern as in Paris, 

 but upon pieces of natural tree branches, fixed in square or 

 oblong oak -stands. The exhibited specimens of vertebrate 

 zoology include skeletons, but no other anatomical prepara- 

 tions, of which there is a distinct collection in the University 

 Museum. The exhibited fishes and reptiles are exceedingly 

 well preserved and mounted in spirit. In the Mollusca, 

 Articulata, Echinoderms, and Corals, great care has been taken 

 in setting the specimens off to advantage by selecting 

 appropriate colours for backgrounds. Specimens in spirit are 

 interspersed in their proper places. All have printed labels. 

 The cases in which they are displayed are of oak, and of very 

 handsome and even ornamental construction. 



The arrangement of all these collections displays a most 

 intelligent appreciation of the needs of the ordinary visitor. 

 Thus in the room appropriated for the exhibition of insects 

 there are three distinct series a general systematic series, 

 a morphological series, and a very fine special collection of 

 the insects of the neighbourhood of Vienna. The other rooms 

 are arranged more or less on similar principles. The main 

 collection of insects is, as I have mentioned before, entirely 

 apart in rooms very well adapted to the purpose, in the upper 

 floor of the building, and kept as usual in drawers in cabinets. 



The zoological portion of the new museum for " Natur- 

 kunde," in Berlin, situated in the Invaliden Strasse, is a 

 remarkable illustration of the complete revolution of ideas on 

 museum arrangement, which took place between its commence- 

 ment and its completion. The building, entirely designed 

 upon the old system, came empty into the hands of the 

 present director, who has arranged the contents absolutely 



