1856 MUSEUMS AND THEIR ARRANGEMENT 145 



According to Huxley's views a complete system de- 

 manded a triple museum for each subject, Zoology and 

 Botany, since Geology was sufficiently provided for in 

 Jermyn Street — one typical or popular, " in which all promi- 

 nent forms or types of animals or plants, recent or fossil, 

 should be so displayed as to give the public an idea of the 

 vast extent and variety of natural objects, to dififuse a 

 general knowledge of the results obtained by science in their 

 investigation and classification, and to serve as a general 

 introduction to the student in Natural Science " ; the second 

 scientific, " in which collections of all available animals and 

 plants and their parts, whether recent or fossil, and in a 

 sufficient number of specimens, should be disposed con- 

 veniently for study, and to which should be exclusively 

 attached an appropriate library, or collection of books and 

 illustrations relating to science, quite independent of any 

 general library " ; the third economic, " in which economic 

 products, whether zoological or botanical, with illustrations 

 of the processes by which they are obtained and applied to 

 use, should be so disposed as best to assist the progress of 

 Commerce and the Arts." It demanded further a Zoological 

 and a Botanical Garden, where the living specimens could be 

 studied. 



Some of these institutions existed, but were not under 

 state control. Others were already begun — e.g. that of 

 Economic Zoology at South Kensington ; but the value of 

 the botanical collections was minimised by want of concen- 

 tration, while as to zoology " the British Museum contains 

 a magnificent collection of recent and fossil animals, the 

 property of the state, but there is no room for its proper 

 display and no accommodation for its proper study. Its 

 official head reports directly neither to the Government nor 

 to the governing body of the institution. ... It is true 

 that the people stroll through the enormous collections of the 

 British Museum, but the sole result is that they are dazzled 

 and confused by the multiplicity of unexplained objects, 

 and the man of science is deprived thrice a week of the 

 means of advancing knowledge." 



The agitation of 1859-60 bore fruit in due season, and 



