30 REPORT— 1894. 



3. The Circulation of Specimens and Tyj)e-collections for EducationaZ 

 Purjyoses. — The importance of educating the eye was now generally recog- 

 nised and the London scientific societies are more and more introducing the 

 optical lantern at their evening meetings. The advantage of the circula- 

 tion of loan collections illustrating the subjects taught in elementary 

 schools was therefore obvious. At Liverpool a system had been elaborated 

 by which loan collections were prepared and circulated among a large 

 number of schools. Experience had shown that the collections should be 

 arranged in cabinets, each containing some special class of objects, such as 

 food products, woods, &c. Those wishing to organise a plan for the circu- 

 lation of collections of this kind should consult a Paper by Mr. J. Chard 

 in the Report of the Museums Association for 1890. 



The educational advantages of a museum were much increased by a 

 liberal use of pictorial illustrations placed as near as possible to the objects 

 illustrated. In the case of minute objects drawings on a larger scale were 

 of the highest value, while models and casts were often of the utmost 

 service. Labels should be clear, and should indicate the most important 

 points in plain language. When specimens could be replaced without 

 difficulty a certain amount of handling might be permitted. It was most 

 desirable that overcrowding should be avoided, and that the utmost care 

 should be taken in the selection of type-specimens. Much economy of 

 space would result from the adoption of an American invention which he 

 would briefly describe. The side of the cabinet, instead of having one 

 slide for each drawer, has a series of slides, one inch apart, all the way up 

 the side, the bottom of each drawer having a tongue to fit into one of 

 these slides. It was clear from this that the drawers might be made in 

 multiples of an inch and arranged in any order desired. 



4. Central Referees for Nomenclature and Classification. — One of the 

 greatest difficulties which the average curator of a small museum had 

 to deal with was the nomenclature of the vai'ied specimens under his 

 charge. An organisation of specialists who would for a small fee allow 

 specimens to be forwarded to them for identification would be of t?ie 

 greatest possible value. Certain abstruse questions might not even then 

 be easy to answer ; but if nine-tenths of our museum specimens could be 

 accurately catalogued a great step in the right dii-ection would be taken. 



5. The most satisfactory Method of making Musextms attractive. — To 

 those who know the museums at South Kensington, or some of the equally 

 well-arranged local museums, this heading might seem unnecessary. 

 But many present might be able to call to mind some collection in a 

 country town containing many most valuable local specimens, the very 

 existence of which was unknown to the majority of the inhabitants. 

 This state of things was yearly becoming rarer ; but many persons could 

 point out some museum almost as much fossilised as the fossils it con- 

 tained, with labels either illegible from age or invisible from displacement. 

 Those who casually entered such museums seldom revisited them. It 

 was most desirable that the English as well as the Latin name of a 

 specimen should be given. Much might be done to allow of comparisons 

 between creatures of different families or genera. Thus, at the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington, the skeletons of a man and of a 

 horse in the attitude of running had recently been placed the one in front 

 of the other, so that the relations of the two, bone for bone, could be dis- 

 tinctly seen. The surgical, ordinary, and veterinary names of the bones 

 were added throughout 



