102 



GENEEAL AERANGEMENT. 



Beserve or 

 Stady 

 Systematic 

 Series. 



ters mainly to its advancement, and thus between them the 

 twofold object of a National Museum of Natural History is 

 carried out. 



III. The Eeserve or Study Systematic Series contains the 

 exceedingly numerous specimens (in many groups the great 

 bulk of the collection) showing the minute distinctions required 

 for working out the problems of variation according to age, 

 sex, season, and locality, for fixing the limits of geographical 

 distribution, or determining the range in geological time : 

 distinctions which, in most cases, can only be appreciated 

 when the specimens exhibiting them are kept under such 

 conditions as to admit of ready and close examination and 

 comparison. It is to this part of the collection that zoologists 

 and botanists resort to compare and name the animals 

 and plants collected in exploring expeditions, to work out 

 natural history problems, and generally to advance the know- 

 ledge of science. In fact, these reserve collections, occupying 

 comparatively little room, kept up at relatively small cost, 

 and visited by comparatively few persons, constitute, from 

 a scientific point of view, the most important part of the 

 Museum, for by their means new knowledge is obtained, 

 which, given forth to the world in the form of memoirs, 

 books, or lectures, is ultimately diffused over a far wider area 

 than that influenced even by the exhibited portions of the 

 Museum. Indeed, without the means of study afforded by 

 the reserve series, the order displayed in arrangement, the 

 exhibition galleries, and the instruction which can be gleaned 

 from the same would not be possible. 



It is important to bear in mind that if the whole of such 

 specimens as are really required for enlarging the boundaries 

 of knowledge were displayed in the public galleries, so that 

 each one could be distinctly seen, a museum many times larger 

 than the present one would not suffice to contain them; the 

 specimens themselves would be inaccessible to the exami- 

 nation of those capable of deriving instruction from them 

 and owing to the disastrous effects of exposure to light upon 

 preserved natural objects, many would ultimately lose almost 

 everything that now gives them value. This portion of the 

 collection must, in fact, be treated as are the books in a library, 



