12G • REPORT— 1870. 



with tlio scientific work of the establishment or of the students. Under the pre- 

 sent arrang^emeut, the collections are only open two or three days in the week, 

 during which scientific work is suspended, as regards all objects in the public 

 galleries. 



2. The exhibited specimens would be much better protected from dirt and dust 

 than they are in cases opening in front. 



3. The exhibition of the whole series of organic beings in one continuous range 

 of galleries would be much more instructive to the pubHc than any system in which 

 (as in the British Museum) thej^ are dispersed about in difl^rent rooms. 



4. The library, being in the centre, would be equally accessible from any one of 

 the working-rooms sm-roundiug the interior of the hollow square *, 



in. Of the Arrangement of the Collections in the National M%iseum of 



Natural History. 



The remarks which I have already made under the previous head will have 

 served to show the Section that I am an advocate of what has been called the 

 " typical," but what it would be better, perhaps, to call the " representative " 

 system of arrangement of the natural-history collections. Nor am I able to under- 

 stand how any reasonable person cau seriously maintain that eveiy object in a 

 National INIuseum of Natural History ought to be exhibited to the indiscriminating 

 public. In accordance with the views of the memorialists of 1858, who may be 

 considered as having inaugurated tlie reform in our natural-history collections which 

 1 hope to see shortly carried out, the collections should be primarily separated into 

 two series : («) objects for public exhibition; (6) objects for private study. The 

 class a, which is to be arranged in the public galleries behind the hermetically 

 sealed glass cases, should embrace a very full and well-selected series of represen- 

 tatives of the principal forms of every class. In some cases it may be necessary to 

 place in this category examples of every species of a group, in others only a selec- 

 tion of each genus or of each family. Every specimen exhibiting the external form 

 in this series should be carefully prepared and mounted in a natural attitude. The 

 representative species of the group having been selected, specimens of both sexes 

 and of all ages should be placed in the series, as likewise examples of variation, if 

 any such are knowai. The skeleton and other preparations of the internal structure 

 should be added, as also the eggs and nests in the case of birds, and examples of 

 corresponding structures in other classes. In short, the utmost endeavours should 

 be made to illustrate, by preparations, models, and drawings, the life-history of the 

 selected " representative ' in as complete a manner as possible. To every exhi- 

 bited specimen should Ido attached a printed label, giving its scientific and popular 

 name, locality, and origin, and some short explanation regarding its chief peculia- 

 rities and most noticeable points of interest. There can, I think, be no doubt what- 

 ever that a small but well-selected series of any branch of the kingdom of nature, 

 arranged after this method, would be of much greater interest and much more in- 

 structive to the public at large than ten times the number of objects arranged ac- 

 cording to the present fashion of the British ftluseum. 



On the other hand, the great mass of the collections (&) intended only for the 

 private examination of experts should be treated after a very different fashion. In 

 this division of the collections, the object is to arrange specimens in as small a 

 space as possible, and, at the same time, in the most convenient manner for easy 

 examination. The work-rooms immediately adjoining the part of the public gal- 

 leries appropriated to division a of any class, will, of course, be devoted to the re- 



* A great deal has been said by those who have advocated the retention of the natural- 

 liistory collections in their present site, about tlie importance of keeping up their conjunc- 

 tion with tlie National Library. It is, of course, obvious that their removal will necessi- 

 tate the acquisition of a special library of natural history for the new museum. I believe, 

 liowever, that a library of the kind, sufficiently comprehensive for all practical purposes, 

 can be got together without much difRcidty and at a comparatively small cost, and that, 

 when formed, it will be of much greater use for those working at tlie collections than the 

 present overgrown establishment at the British Museum. It must be also recollected that 

 the library of the British Museum is only available for the use of the officers. The books 

 cannot be brought to the specimens nor the specimens to the books by ordinary students. 



