January 31, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



159 



and intimately connected with the educa- 

 tional undertakings of the government ; 

 often, when there are several great cities 

 under one government, each has its own 

 system of museums, and these together foi,'m 

 the national sj'stem. 



2. In most countries of Continental 

 Europe the collections of the national uni- 

 versities form a part of the national museum 

 system and are exceedingly eflficient when 

 thus aidministered. 



3. National museums have opportunities 

 which are not often shared by those under 

 state control and their responsibilities are 

 correspondingly great. They should occupy 

 especially those fields which are not provid- 

 ed for in the other museums of the country 

 in which they exist, and should not only re- 

 frain from competition with these museums, 

 but afford to them unreserved cooperation. 



[The principal purpose of a National Mu- 

 seum must be, as Prof. Jevons has well said, "the 

 advancement of knowledge, and the preserva- 

 tion of specimens of works of art which hand 

 down the history of the nation and the world. ' ' 

 In other words, to serve as museums of record 

 and research. It is by no means impossible, 

 however, for them to render excellent service 

 as educational museums, and quite independent 

 of other considerations, they can rarely afford 

 to sacrifice the material advantages gained from 

 the display of popular exhibition series. 



A serious obstacle to success in this direction 

 is the vast amount of material which they all 

 possess, and the lack of space in which to admit 

 it. This difiiculty may be partly overcome by 

 a liberal assignment of objects to that portion of 

 the study series which is not on exhibition. 



A National Museum may not, it is true, advan- 

 tageously attempt to install its separate depart- 

 ments in such manner as to produce the unity 

 of effect possible in small specialized museums. 

 This, however, is due to the fact that they are 

 obliged to classify their material more strictly, 

 for the attractiveness of a specialized museum 

 grows largely from the fact that many illustra- 

 tive objects are introduced into the exhibition 

 series which are not strictly in place. The ex- 



treme attractivenes of fishery exhibitions, for 

 instance, grows from the fact that so many in- 

 teresting objects only incidentally connected 

 with the fisheries may be introduced as a setting 

 for the objects directly related to the fisheries. 



A result of the same kind is obtained in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology in London, where 

 a selected series of products of all the arts de- 

 riving their material from the mineral kingdom 

 — glass, pottery, gems, metal work and many 

 similar groups — are brought in, legitimately in- 

 creasing the attractiveness of the museum to 

 the visitor and its instructiveness to the student. 



Though the great general museum cannot 

 vie in this respect with the local museum, it 

 has a certain advantage of another kind in its 

 very wealth of material, for the display of vast 

 collections, assembled from all parts of the 

 earth and covering, it may be, many acres of 

 floor space, strictly classified and arranged so 

 as to show mutual relationships, affords in itself 

 the most impressive lesson. While in smaller 

 museums the study of individual objects may 

 be easier, in those of the other kind there is a 

 better opportunity for the study of great general 

 relationships.] 



H. Local, Provincial or City Museums. 



1. To museums of this class belongs the 

 duty of preserving all that which is char- 

 acteristic of the region or city in which they 

 are located. Every State or Province should 

 have an institution of this kind to care for 

 material illustrating its own geology, zo- 

 ology, botany and archseology. Every city 

 should have a historical collection for me- 

 morials of events in its history and that of 

 its representative men. 



2. It is legitimate and desirable that 

 Local and Municipal Museums should also 

 enter upon general museum work of a sci- 

 entific and educational character. They 

 may form collections of a general character, 

 in order that their visitors may see and 

 study the unfamiliar products of foreign 

 lands, as well as those of local interest. In 

 museums of this class, models, casts, copies 

 and pictures of objects not actually obtain- 

 able may properly be used. 



