36 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 184. 



table collision, and the provident direction 

 of all is a task demanding a wise sense of 

 discrimination and responsibility, as well 

 as a rather judicial indifference to special 

 pleading and selfish aggrandizement. 



But while the collection of specimens can 

 be regulated by ordinary experience and 

 skill, the exhibition of specimens demands 

 an order of analytical sagacity and sym- 

 pathetic insight not ordinarily possessed. 

 Dr. Goode,inhis famous epigram, declared 

 that a museum was a collection of labels 

 illustrated by specimens. This is not to be 

 interpreted that a museum is to become a 

 hall of signs. But it does mean that there 

 shall be nothing left to surmise or guesses, 

 but everything shall be named, and a 

 further extension of its meaning implies 

 that the combination of labels and objects 

 shall be educational. The function of the 

 museum as a collector encloses its function 

 of so selecting and arranging objects as to 

 educate. The selection of such objects as 

 present a development or illustrate condi- 

 tions, stages of growth, environment, sup- 

 plementary associations, climate, position, 

 form a visual lesson, become encyclopaedic, 

 and leave a deposit of impressions which 

 express the science of the subject. 



Let us take two concrete examples : A 

 collection of shells can be minutely labelled 

 and laboriously displayed, but how little 

 does a scientific label, with the name of a 

 genus and a species, tell the ordinary vis- 

 itor ! It supplies only an additional means 

 of mental confusion. But let a group of 

 shells be represented by a few well-selected 

 and graded specimens showing stages of 

 growth ; let a general label explain their 

 general characters, affinities and possibly 

 uses ; let a map show in colored areas 

 their distribution, while a few prints, photo- 

 graphs or drawings represent the regions in 

 which the shell lives, the appearance of the 

 animal alive, with a possible dissection, and 

 without going further the whole section be- 



comes vitalized, and a living impression, 

 measurably perfect and permanent, has 

 been produced. Such a method of exhibi- 

 tion evokes the nascent properties of the 

 young naturalist, while it holds the agree- 

 able attention of the plainest visitor. James 

 Whittaker, of Oldham, was ' a hand' in a 

 cotton mill, who from hearing some one 

 say, as he picked up a piece of coal shale, 

 that there was a fish scale in it, was led to 

 collect coal plants and reduce them to thin 

 films by rubbing them down on the kitchen 

 floor so as to reveal their minute structure. 

 And this man's collection afterwards was 

 used by Professor W. C. Williamson in his 

 memoirs on coal plants published by the 

 Eoyal Society. This story illustrates the 

 supreme consequences of a suggestion. 

 How wonderfully suggestive and stimu- 

 lating may a museum collection become to 

 congenial minds ! Of course, in the case of 

 Whittaker, as of Edwards, his Scotch ana- 

 logue, the inborn tendency might have 

 spontaneously, sooner or later, pushed 

 their minds into such lines of study and 

 research, but the dormant flame would 

 have been in all cases more quickly kindled 

 in the presence of a thoughtfully arranged 

 exhibit. Such exhibits are mute peda- 

 gogics. 



Again, a collection of minerals fails to ex- 

 press the ideas and lessons of mineralogy if 

 it is a formally arranged succession of 

 ticketed and labelled specimens. Miner- 

 alogy admits of a many-sided installation. 

 It would be advantageous to display 

 minerals in reference to their history, their 

 crystallization and physical properties, their 

 distribution and their specific multiplicity 

 and characters. Usually the latter method 

 alone is used, and then it frequently takes 

 the form of a succession of specimens rather 

 niggardly labelled. Primarily, it would 

 seem that the object of a collection is to 

 lay open the scientific aspects of the subject 

 with some suggestions, introduced wisely 



