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1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 81 
of ancient times are nearly wanting. But the impossibility of be- 
lieving that knowledge in natural history would be attained and 
furthered without collections induced Professor Beckmann to 
express the opinion in a short but interesting paper on this sub- 
ject, some ninety years ago, that the origin of such collections 
was to be found in the old custom of keeping curious and remark- 
able objects in temples. This opinion gains some ground, as the 
medical sciences are considered to have originated in the written 
reports of convalescents about their sickness, and the ‘remedies 
used, which were posted in the temple of Æsculapius for every- 
body’s instruction. There are some interesting facts quoted by 
the classic authors. The skins of the hairy men from the Gor- 
gades Islands, brought home by Hanno’s expedition, were still 
preserved in the temple of Juno, three hundred years after Car- 
thage was destroyed. The late Professor J. Wyman ingeniously 
suggested that they might be the skins of the gorilla. The 
horns of the Scythie bulls, exceedingly rare, and alone capable of 
preserving the water of the Styx, were given by Alexander the 
Great to the temple of Delphi. The horns of the renowned 
obnoxious steer from Macedon were presented by King Philip to 
the temple of Hercules ; the abnormal omoplate of Pelops was 
in the temple at Elis; the horns of the so-called Indian ants, in 
the temple of Hercules at Erythris ; the crocodile brought home 
by the expedition to the sources of the Nile, in the temple of Isis 
at Cæsarea. A large number of similar cases are quoted in Pro- 
fessor Beckman’s above-mentioned paper. The choice of places 
devoted to religious service, for such deposits, was very appropri- 
ate, every spoliation of them being considered sacrilege. So it 
happened that such curiosities were preserved many centuries, 
and the not infrequent additions in such a space of time formed at 
last a somewhat considerable collection, open at any time and to 
everybody. The variety of prominent objects was certainly in- 
structive to the observers. 
Apollonius saw with wonder in India the trees bearing the 
different kinds of nuts he had seen before preserved in the tem- 
ples in Greece. After all, things brought together in such con- 
fusion were the origin of collections; and in fact this custom was 
continued through the Middle Ages, changed only by the exclu- 
sion of objects not agreeing with the sanctity of the place. In 
a votive temple on the battle-field of Feuchtwangen hung the 
omoplate said to be that of the commander of the Teutonic 
Order who had fallen in battle four hundred years ago ; it is now 
6 
VOL. X. — no. 2. 
