132 DYE-STUFFS OF INDIA AND CHINA. 



collection as possible of objects typical of family groups in every depart- 

 ment of natural historj^, including geology, and also illustrations of the 

 more important arts, manufactures and imports, for educational purposes. 

 Arrangements should be made for the delivery of familiar lectures on the 

 contents of the museum. To assist curators there should be prepared 

 classified lists of types of classes, orders, families, and sub-families — with or 

 without descriptions — with wood cuts of the types (coloured). These cuts 

 might, in many cases, be placed in the museum till the objects themselves, 

 or some nearly allied species, could be obtained. There should be printed 

 labels for naming the typical collection. Curators would obtain valuable 

 aid if there were set up (say at the British Museum) a collection of these 

 typical specimens, as a model museum, in the best and most economical 

 manner. This would be very useful to students and amateurs commencing 

 the study of natural history. The Society of Arts might appoint (and, if 

 necessary, the Government pay) an inspector of museums, to visit them 

 from time to time, to report on their condition, and to publish abstracts of 

 such reports in the Society's Journal. His accumulated knowledge and 

 experience would enable him to offer valuable suggestions to the curators 

 as to their arrangements, and the means of making the most practical use 

 of their collections. The inspector should be kept informed as to the 

 specimens, or objects, of every kind that there may be to spare from any 

 of the national or other collections. In his tours he would ascertain wants 

 and redundances, and be able to distribute duplicates to advantage. Other 

 useful measures might be to print and circulate instructions on the collec- 

 tion and preservation of specimens of all kinds — to encourage officers of 

 ships (especially the surgeons) to bring home the productions, natural and 

 artificial, of foreign countries — and, lastly, as illustrations of processes in 

 arts and manufactures, and imported raw materials, are often difficult to 

 obtain in country places, and would be valuable additions to many provin- 

 cial museums, the Society of Arts might assist in obtaining them at a 

 moderate cost. The first act of the inspector should be to make a compre- 

 hensive report of all the existing museums attached to the institutions in 

 union, stating particularly their condition, means, and expenses. 

 Alton. 



DYE-STUFFS OF INDIA AND CHINA. 



BY M. C. COOKE. 



That the papers already communicated on this subject might be rendered 

 more complete, we have now added thereto a brief account of such other 

 dyeing substances as are in general use. This will constitute the four 

 papers on this subject — a complete history of the dye-stuffs of India and 

 China, so far as the limits of this Journal would permit such a history to 



