18 The Improvements effected in Modem Museums. 



it, can doubt for a moment tliat such cases would be infinitely 

 more attractive to the public at large, than the crowded shelves 

 of our present Museums in which they speedily become bewildered 

 by the multiplicity, the apparent sameness, and at the same 

 time the infinite variety of the objects presented to their view, 

 and, in regard to which, the labels on the tops of the cases afford 

 them little assistance, while those on the specimens themselves 

 are almost unintelligible. 



" When such visitors really take any interest in the exhibition, 

 it will generally be found that they concentrate their attention 

 on individual objects, while others affect to do the same, in order 

 to conceal their total want of interest, of which they somehow 

 feel ashamed, although it originates in no fault of their own. 



" I think the time is approaching, when a great change will be 

 made in the arrangement of Museums of Natural History, and 

 have therefore thrown out these observations as suggestions, by 

 which it appears to me, that their usefulness may be greatly 

 extended. 



" In England, as we are well aware, all changes are well consid- 

 ered and slowly adopted. Some forty years ago, the plan of 

 placing every specimen on a separate stand, and arrangiug them 

 rank and file in large glass wall cases, was considered a step in 

 advance, and it was doubtless an improvement on the pre-exist- 

 ing plan, especially at a time when our collections were limited 

 to a small number of species, which were scarcely more than 

 types of our modern families or genera. 



" The idea had arisen that the English collections were smaller 

 than those on the Continent, and the public called for every 

 specimen to be exhibited. But the result has been, that in con- 

 sequence of the enormous development of our collections, the 

 attention of the great mass of visitors is distracted by the mul- 

 titude of specimens, while the minute characters by which 

 naturalists distinguish genera and species, are inappreciable to 

 their eyes." 



It will be seen from this that our great Museum authority has 

 no longer any faith in ths old fashioned arrangements, and if 

 wall cases are found inconvenient in a cold climate like England, 

 how much more dangerous must they be in Australia ? The 

 cabinets in the Melbourne Museum are arranged end on between 

 the windows — the narrow part touching the wall, and leaving 

 three sides free, so that back and front of the specimens can be 

 inspected, and dangerous insects destroyed whenever they make 

 their appearance. Where wall cases in particular those without 

 glass tops are in use, the destruction from the attack of insects 

 is very large, and the labour and expense to keep a collection well 

 preserved, will amount to a considerable sum during the 

 year. 



