Oct. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



AND ACCLIMATISATION. 107 



such a collection so arranged is a great mistake. The eye both of the 

 general visitor and of the student becomes confused by the number of 

 the specimens, however systematically they may be brought together. 

 The very extent of the collection renders it difficult even for the student, 

 and much more so for the less scientific visitor, to discover any 

 particular specimen of which he is in quest ; and the larger the collec- 

 tion the greater this difficulty becomes. Add to this the fact that all 

 specimens, but more especially the more beautiful and the more delicate, 

 are speedily deteriorated, and in some cases destroyed for all useful pur- 

 poses by exposure to light, and that both the skins and bones of animals 

 are found to be much more susceptible of measurement and comparison 

 in an unstuffed or unmounted state, and it will be at once apparent why 

 almost all scientific zoologists have adopted for their own collections the 

 simpler and more advantageous plan of keeping their specimens in 

 boxes or in drawers, devoted each to a family, a genus, or a section of a 

 genus, as each individual case may require. Thus preserved, and thus 

 arranged, the most perfect and the most useful collection that the 

 student could desire would occupy comparatively a small space, and by 

 no means require large and lofty halls for its reception. As it is 

 desirable that each large group should be kept in a separate room ; and 

 as wall-space is what is chiefly required for the reception of the drawers 

 or boxes, rooms like those of an ordinary dwelling-house would be best 

 fitted for the accommodation of such a collection, and of the students by 

 whom it would be consulted ; one great advantage of this plan being that 

 the students would be uninterrupted by the ignorant curiosity of the ruder 

 class of general visitors, and not liable to interference from scientific rivals. 

 There are other considerations, also, which should be taken into account 

 in estimating the advantages of a collection thus preserved and thus 

 arranged. A particular value is attached to such specimens as have 

 been studied and described by zoologists, as affording the certain means 

 of identifying the animals on which their observations were made. 

 Such specimens ought to be preserved in such a way as to be least liable 

 to injury from exposure to light, dust, or other extraneous causes of 

 deterioration ; and this is best done by keeping them in a state the least 

 exposed to those destructive influences, instead of in the open cases of a 

 public and necessarily strongly lighted gallery. Again, the amount of 

 saving thus effected in the cost of stuffing and mounting is well worthy 

 of serious consideration, especially when we take into account the fact 

 that this stuffing and mounting, however agreeable to the eye, is made at 

 the cost of rendering the specimens thus operated upon less available for 

 scientific use. All these arguments go to prove that, for the purposes of 

 scientific study, the most complete collection that could possibly be 

 formed would be best kept in cabinets or boxes, from which light and 

 dust would be excluded, in rooms specially devoted to the purpose, and 

 not in galleries open to the general public ; and that such an arrange- 

 ment would combine the greatest advantage to the student, and the most 



