78 REPORT— 1864. 



increased the number of known species, and of species frequently separated by 

 characters so minute as not to be detected without careful and close examination. 



Having come to the conclusion that a museum for the use of the general public 

 should consist chiefly of the best-lcuowu, the most marked, and the most interest- 

 ing animals, arranged in such a way as to convey the greatest amount of instruc- 

 tion in the shortest and most direct manner, and so exhibited as to be seen without 

 confusion, I am very much disposed to recm* to something like the old plan of 

 an-anging each species or series of species in a special case, to be placed either 

 on shelves or tables, or in wall-cases, as may be found most appropriate, or as 

 the special purpose for which each case is prepared and exhibited may seem to 

 require. 



But instead of each case, as of old, containing only a single specimen, it should 

 embrace a series of specimens, selected and arranged so as to present a special 

 object for study; and thus any visitor, looking at a single case only, and taking 

 the trouble to understand it, would carry away a distinct portion of Iniowledge, 

 such as in the present state of our arrangements coidd only be obtained by the 

 examination and comparison of specimens distributed through distant parts of the 

 collection. 



Every case should be distinctly labelled with an account of the pui-pose for 

 which it is prepared and exhibited ; and each specimen contained in it should also 

 bear a label indicating whj' it is there placed. 



I may be asked, why should each series of specimens be contained in a separate 

 case ? but I think it must be obvious that a series of objects exhibited for a defi- 

 nite purpose should be brought into close proximity, and contained in a well- 

 defined space ; and this will best be done by keeping them in a single and separate 

 case. There is also the additional advantage that whenever, in the progress of 

 discovery, it becomes desirable that the facts for the illustration of which the case 

 was prepared should be exhibited in a different manner, thi--- can easily be done by 

 rearranging the individual case without interfering with the general arrangement 

 of the coUectiou. I believe that the more clearly the object is defined and the 

 illustrations kept together, the greater wiU be the amount of information derived 

 from it by the visitor and the interest he will feel in examining it. 

 Such cases may be advantageously prepared to show — 

 The classes of the animal kingdom. 

 The orders of each class. 

 The families of each order. 

 The genera of each family. 

 The sections of each genus, by means of one or more typical or characteristic 



examples of each class, order, or section. 

 A selection of a specimen of each of the more important or striking species of 



each genus or section. 

 The changes of state, sexes, habits, and manners of a well-known or an other- 

 wise interesting species. 

 The economic uses to which they are applied ; and such other particulars as the 

 judgment and talent of the curator would select as best adapted for popular 

 instruction, and of which these are only intended as partial indications. 

 No one, I think, who has ever had charge of a museum, or has noted the 

 behaviour of the visitors while passing through it, can doubt for a moment that 

 such cases would be infinitely more attractive to the public at large than tlie 

 crowded shelves of our present museums, in which they speedily become bewildered 

 by the multiplicity, the apparent sameness, and at the same time the infinite 

 variety of the objects presented to their view, and in regard to which the labels on 

 the tops of the cases afford them little assistance, wnUe those on the specimens 

 themselves are almost imintelligible. 



When such visitors really take any interest in the exhibition, it will generally 

 be found that they concentrate their attention on individual objects, while others 

 aflect to do the same, in order to conceal their total want of interest, of which they 

 somehow feel ashamed, although it originates in no fault of their own. 



I think the time is approaching when a gi'eat change will be made in the 

 an-angement of Museums of Natural History, and have therefore thrown out these 



