68 FIELD AND FOREST. 



curator. I do not refer especially to their liability to moths (insects 

 of all kinds can be kept down by placing saucers of carbolic acid in 

 the -cases) but to their grotesque deformity, their unnatural attitudes, 

 and their proneness to contract in unexpected places. A model in plas- 

 ter or clay, strengthened internally by wires would last for ever, and 

 the skin would stretch over it readily enough when moist. Real skill 

 in modeling is required here, and we have not yet been able to com- 

 mand it. The schools of art may in time help us over the difficulty. 

 A well modeled animal can never be cheap, but if increased cost, 

 liness should render set-up quadrupeds comparatively scarce, zoology 

 need not suffer on that account. 



Public museums should contain far more than they now do the ele- 

 mentary explanation necessary for the right understanding of the ob- 

 jects exhibited. A text-book illustrated by specimens instead of wood- 

 cuts should be our aim, at least where the wants of the public are more 

 concerned than the wants of special students. I should propose to 

 relegate nine-tenths of our existing collections, to cabinets were it not 

 that things out of sight in cabinets are so liable to suffer from ne- 

 glect. At present we aim at too much, introduce too many de- 

 partments into a small museum, show too many obscure and uninstruc- 

 tive objects, and spoil everything by over-crowding. 



Personally, I do not hold that local collections should be every- 

 thing in a provincial museum. We have to consider the wants of resi- 

 dents as well as of passing strangers, and what the residents interested 

 in natural history require is a general collection of typical specimens 

 which will teach them something of the elements. of their science. It 

 is very easy to make imposing collections of land and fresh-water 

 shells, butterflies, and so forth, which a naturalist passing that way 

 praises because they contain here and there a choice thing, but which 

 either teaches nothing to the uneducated visitor, or else teaches him 

 the very undesirable lesson that the best thing he can do is to make a 

 similar collection for himself. We have had more than enough of un- 

 intelligent collecting and and un intelligent records of occurrence. 

 Our provincial museums should tell the public that to know some- 

 thing of the structure of animals and plants is better than to know 

 many species. 



