1876. ] The Origin and Development of Museums. 137 
of the Dutch people for accurate and correct work in its exagger- 
ated and pedantic character was well adapted for forming and ar- 
ranging collections so rapidly acquired by a trade with the whole 
world. 
Naturalists seldom equaled, never surpassed, belong to this 
interesting time, as Swammerdam, Leuwenhoek, Ruysch, Rum- 
phius, Seba, and others. The observations and collections of 
microscopical objects by Leuwenhoek and Ruysch have till to-day 
a world-wide or rather a traditional fame, and are still preserved, 
partly in London, partly in St. Petersburg. Swammerdam him- 
self gives an interesting account of his way of arranging and 
preserving the collections which were the pride and marvel of the 
country, seen and admired by prominent princes, who disputed 
among themselves the honor of acquiring them. This distin- 
guished naturalist invented the mode of preservation of the most 
difficult objects by inflation, by drying, by injection, and by dif- 
ferent chemicals. 
The fame of the Dutch cabinets, as the most prominent of the 
time, induced Peter the Great to visit and study them carefully. 
A number of the most renowned, bought by him for enormous 
prices, were transferred to St. Petersburg to arouse an interest 
in such studies in his country. There are also a large number of 
more or less similar and expensive collections in France, Den- 
mark, Germany, and England. The celebrated collection of Sir 
Hans Sloane was later the nucleus of the gigantic one of the 
British Museum. 
Some details of the celebrated collections of Ruysch and Vin- 
cent in Amsterdam would perhaps be of interest as standard 
examples of the arrangement of collections at this time. The 
principal room is an immense hall, the high walls of which are 
furnished with columns, large windows in the upper part, with a 
gallery supported by caryatides, and the ceiling covered with 
rich frescoes. Shelves in the wall, or semicircular alcoves, were 
used for the exhibition of the objects. Large tables extending 
through the halls allowed of a far more detailed examination of 
the jars and’ boxes with which they were covered. Rooms con- 
nected with the halls were used for the cabinets, filled with 
drawers or glass jars symmetrically arranged. The latter con- 
tained birds, fishes, reptiles, the egg of a turtle with the embryo 
_ Supported by the hand of a child, and a crocodile embryo in sea- 
weed. The cover of the jar is of rich silk damask, fastened with 
elegant silk cords, the color of which is always reported in the 
