ADDRESS. 1 5 



in which those of any particular gronp are placed the greater will be the 

 convenience both of students and curators, for in very few establishments 

 will it be possible to form each series on such a scale as to be entirely 

 independent of the other. 



On the other hand, in a collection arranged for the instruction of the 

 general visitor, the conditions under Avhich the specimens are kept should 

 be totally different. In the first place, their numbers must be strictly 

 limited, according to the nature of the subject to be illustrated and the 

 space available. None must be placed too high or too low for ready 

 examination. There must be no crowding of specimens one behind the 

 other, every one being perfectly and distinctly seen, and with a clear 

 space around it. Imagine a picture-gallery with half the pictures on the 

 walls partially or entirely concealed by others hung in front of them ; 

 the idea seems preposterous, and yet this is the approved arrangement of 

 specimens in most public museums. If an object is worth putting into 

 a gallery at all it is worth such a position as will enable it to be seen. 

 Every specimen exhibited should bo good of its kind, and all available 

 skill and care should be spent upon its preservation and rendering it 

 capable of teaching the lesson it is intended to convey. And here I can- 

 not refrain from saying a word upon the sadly neglected art of taxidermy, 

 which continues to fill the cases of most of our museums with wretched 

 and repulsive caricatures of mammals and birds, out of all natural propor- 

 tions, shrunken here and bloated there, and in attitudes absolutely 

 impossible for the creature to have assumed while alive. Happily there 

 may be seen occasionally, especially where amateurs of artistic taste and 

 good knowledge of natural history have devoted themselves to the sub- 

 ject, examples enough — and you are fortunate in possessing them in ]S"ew- 

 castle — to show that an animal can be converted after death, by a proper 

 application of taxidermy, into a real life-like representation of the original, 

 perfect in form, proportions, and attitude, and almost, if not quite, as 

 valuable for conveying information on these points as the living creature 

 itself The fact is that taxidermy is an art resembling that of the painter 

 or rather the sculptor ; it requires natural genius as well as great culti- 

 vation, and it can never be permanently improved until we have aban- 

 doned the present conventional low standard and low payment for ' bird- 

 stuflBng,' which is utterly inadequate to induce any man of capacity to 

 devote himself to it as a profession. 



To return from this digi-ession, every specimen exhibited should have 

 its definite purpose, and no absolute duplicate should on any account be 

 permitted. Above all, the purpose for which each specimen is exhibited, 

 and the main lesson to be derived from it, must be distinctly indicated by 

 the labels afiixed, both as headings of the various divisions of the series, 

 and to the individaal specimens. A well-arranged educational museum 

 has been defined as a collection of insti'uctive labels illustrated by well- 

 selected specimens. 



