TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 79 



observations as suprgestions, by wliicli it appears to me that their usefuhiess may 

 be gi'eatly extended. 



In England, as we are well aware, all changes are well considered and slowly 

 adopted. Some forty years ago, the plan of placing every specimen on a separate 

 stand, and arranging them in rank and file in large glass wall-cases, was considered 

 a great step in advance, and it was doubtless an imj)rovement on the preexisting 

 plan, especially at a time when om- collections were limited to a small number of 

 species, which were scarcely more than types of our modern families or genera. 



The idea had arisen that the English collections were smaller than those on the 

 Continent, and the public called for every specimen to be exhibited. But the 

 residt has been that, in consequence of the enormous development of our collec- 

 tions, the attention of the great mass of visitors is distracted by the multitude of 

 specimens, while the minute characters by which natm-alists distinguish genera 

 and species are inappreciable to their eyes. 



It was not, however, the unenlightened public only who insisted on this unli- 

 mited display ; there were also some leading scientific men who called for it, on 

 the gTound that the curator might be induced to keep specimens out of sight in 

 order to make use of them for the enlargement of his own scientific reputation 

 while the scientific public were debarred the sight of them, and that valuable 

 specimens might thus be kept, as the favourite phrase was, "in the cellars." But 

 any such imputation would be completely nullified by the plan which I have pro- 

 posed of placing all the specimens in the scientific collection in boxes or di-awers 

 appropriated to them, and rendering them thus at once and readily accessible to 

 students at large. 



I may observe that the late Mr. Swainson, who was the first to raise the cry, 

 lived to find that it was far moi-e useful to keep his own extensive collection of 

 l)ird-skins in di-awers, like his butterfiies and his shells ; and that most scientific 

 zoologists and osteologists are now convinced that the skins of animals unmounted 

 and kept in boxes are far more useful for scientific piu-poses than stuffed skins or 

 .set-up skeletons. 



So also, with reference to my proposal for the aiTangement of the Museum for 

 the general public, I find that those who are desirous of exhibiting their specimens 

 to the best advantage are generally adopting similar plans. 



Thus, when Mr. Gould determined on the exhibition of his magnificent collec- 

 tion of Humming-birds, he at once renounced the rank-and-file system, and 

 arranged them in small glazed cases, each case containing a genus, and each pane 

 or side of the case showing a small series of allied species, or a family group of a 

 single species. 



When lately at Liverpool, I observed that the clever curator, Mr. Moore, instead 

 of keeping a single animal on each stand, has commenced gi-ouping the various 

 specimens of the same species of Mammalia together on one and the same stand, 

 as several are gi-ouped in the British Museum, and thus giving far greater interest 

 to the group than the individual specimens would afford. 



In the British Museum, as an experiment with the view of testing the feelings 

 of the public and the scientific visitors, the species of Nestor Parrots and of the 

 Birds of Paradise, a family of Gorillas and the Impeyan Pheasants, and sundiy of 

 the more interesting single specimens, have beeil placed in isolated cases ; and 

 it may readily be seen that they have proved the most attractive cases in the 

 exhibition. A series of reptiles and fish, exhibiting the characters of the families 

 and the more interesting genera, have been stuffed and exhibited, whilst the col- 

 lection of those animals in spirits and in skins is kept arranged for the use of the 

 more scientific student. 



In the same manner, a series of the skeletons, showing the principal forms of 

 each class of animals, has been set up, and the remainder of them kept in boxes, 

 so that a series of the same bone of any number of animals may be laid out for 

 comparison with either recent or fossU specimens, or to show the form the bone 

 assumes in the different genera, which it is difficult to see in an articulated 

 •skeleton. 



In the Great Exhibition of 1862, Prof. Hyrtl of Vienna exhibited some framed 

 cases of skeletons like those here recommended : one contained the typea of each 



