662 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 933 



surance and the amount paid for one death is 

 easily sufficient for the construction of such 

 a model. 



Pictures are very useful in connection with 

 museum exhibits. Sometimes photographs 

 are used, again sketches or paintings or trans- 

 parencies, and frequently lantern slides are 

 employed. These pictures may show the sort 

 of country from which the objects come, or 

 they may be reconstructions based on careful 

 study. Por instance, bones of extinct animals 

 are frequently found. No one knows what 

 these animals looked like in life, but the 

 scientist can study the bones and compare 

 them with the bones of animals which he is 

 able to observe. He can have his artist paint 

 these living animals and can explain to him 

 in what respect the bones of the extinct animal 

 differ. By a study of the bones of the feet he 

 may learn and explain to the artist whether 

 the animal walked in a swamp or on rocky 

 ground. By a study of the animal's teeth he 

 may tell what kind of food it ate. Then the 

 artist can make his picture very much more 

 intelligently than otherwise would be the case 

 and this picture conveys to the people some 

 idea of what the animal formerly looked like.' 

 Sometimes the artist makes a sculpture of the 

 animal instead of a painting or to accompany 

 the painting so that a complete exhibit might 

 show a skeleton with a painting, a model, a 

 label, a map, and perhaps even another animal 

 such as lives to-day and is akin to the extinct 

 animal. 



A map may show the part of the world from 

 which a specimen comes, other maps may 

 show the details of its home country, and 

 maps may be used to show its distribution 

 over the earth and the relation of this region 

 to some other area, as for instance one where 

 certain plants grow. Maps may be mere out- 

 lines or shaded, or they may be relief models 

 made to resemble a surface of the country. 



Specimens may be arranged in series, and 

 in this way teach much more than they would 

 singly. One may arrange together specimens 

 which illustrate the idea of evolution or which 

 show all the different musical instruments of 



the world. One may show together all the 

 things found in a certain province or all the 

 animals, plants, minerals and so forth, of a 

 certain region, as for instance a desert, and 

 contrast them with things from a forest. 



Different classes of people use museums. 

 Carpenters and cabinet makers often study the 

 collections of woods, miners the collections of 

 minerals, teachers of art and architecture the 

 collections of primitive art and the objects and 

 pictures showing the types of buildings of 

 other times and other peoples. 



Some collections are of great value, as for 

 instance the display of gems exhibited by 

 Tiffany and Company at the Paris Exposition. 

 Such a collection is sometimes protected by 

 iron gratings on the windows, and armed 

 guards night and day. Then too there may 

 be electrical connection with the police depart- 

 ment so that an alarm may be given either by 

 the guard or when a case is broken open. 



Exhibits showing mankind occasionally in- 

 clude plaster casts of living people. Placed 

 on these casts are their clothing, the whole 

 being arranged so that it will illustrate their 

 occupations and their relations to the country 

 in which they live as well as its products, both 

 plant and animal. 



Frequently pictures or casts or models must 

 be used where the original specimens are too 

 expensive or too large and heavy to be brought 

 to the museum or even too large to be given 

 space in a museum. Then, too, casts may be 

 used for such things as can not be removed 

 from countries which have silly laws prevent- 

 ing their exportation. 



The expeditions of a great museum often 

 cover practically the whole world. The Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History in New 

 York in one year had expeditions in many 

 parts of North America, in South America, 

 Asia and the South Sea Islands. 



The specimens too valuable for study to 

 be put on exhibition, duplicate collections 

 which are used for study and the specimens 

 for which there is no room in the exhibition 

 halls are kept in rooms for study where they 

 are safe from changes of climate, insect pests, 



