128 EEPOBT— 1888. 



their natural connection. Such separation naay be convenient for students, 

 but for the instruction of the public selected examples of fossil organisms 

 should be in some manner associated with the living forms. It may not 

 be easy to accomplish this, and it is not necessary that it should be done 

 in any uniform method. Thoughtful curators who recognise the advantao'e 

 will do the best they can with the means at their command. 



The same may be said of the much-debated question — How best to 

 display the forms of existing life ? Methods may vary in detail, if the 

 essential principles are carried out, viz., that comparison of allied forms 

 must be rendered easy ; that the grouping must be conspicuous ; that the 

 connections and divergences of groups must be indicated ; that the 

 labelling must be distinct and full ; that as many of the facts of nature 

 must be got into the allotted space as can be made clearly visible there, 

 and that their practical bearing upon the wants of man must be shown, 

 if possible. 



Professor Herdman's phylogenetic system of arrangement has the 

 great merit of presenting the life-groups in the true order of nature, as 

 far as this is known. In a building suitable for such an arrangement, it 

 would be an excellent scheme, and its leading idea should be borne in 

 mind in all cases, but it could not generally be carried out in detail. Un- 

 doubtedly some orderly arrangement of groups should be adopted as a 

 foundation in every museum. To have one room devoted to birds, the 

 next to insects, and the next to fishes, would be wrong under all 

 circumstances. 



In considering the best form for cases and the best arrangement of 

 the specimens, it must be remembered that the strength of every pro- 

 vincial museum ought to lie in its local collections. It is the special 

 business of the local museum to collect the utmost possible amount of 

 information respecting the locality, and as much of this should be laid 

 before the public as can be made clear to them without risking the 

 destruction of rare and perishable objects. 



These local collections should form the central and most prominent 

 display. Local objects can be obtained in the greatest abundance and at 

 the least cost, and they will always have a peculiar attractiveness for the 

 local public, who can best be instructed by being led from familiar objects 

 of which they have some knowledge to those which are comparatively 

 strange and unfamiliar, and which, if presented without such associations, 

 would often be incomprehensible. Geological collections must be accom- 

 panied by maps, diagrams, sections, and models, so that the relation of 

 each rock to the general series maybe readily perceived. These maps, &c., 

 may be of small size, but they are wanted in juxtaposition with the 

 specimens, not hanging on distant walls, although, of course, large wall 

 diagrams of a more general character are iiseful also. The building up 

 of sections with slabs of the actual rocks has been adopted in some 

 museums with very good effect. Such sections on a large scale erected 

 in the surrounding grounds may give a good idea of the stratigraphy of 

 the district. The relations between the rocks and the physiography, the 

 drainage and the water supply, is best shown by relief models in clay, 

 paper, or other material. In the display of minerals, their connection 

 with various commercial products ought to be indicated. Throughout 

 the whole of the geological department the results of chemical and 

 microscopical analysis of the various rocks and minerals must be 

 briefly stated. 



