1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 141 
and direct the whole ; the old custom of having a board of patrons 
to decide matters concerning the internal management proved to 
be an impediment, sometimes even a nuisance. It must not be for- 
gotten that, in a regular meeting, the Board of the Ashmolean 
Museum decided that the bird No. 31 should be thrown away as 
a rotten object. It was the last Dodo existing. Except in En- 
gland, and its present and former colonies, such boards of trustees 
have been abolished. 
The aim to preserve everything contained in collections soon 
demanded a new and most important officer, called conservator. 
His duty is manifold and burdensome, especially in a rapidly 
growing museum; the most varied kinds of work belong to him, 
but all centring in the effort to preserve the treasures of science. 
In fact, the business of this officer is an art in which there are 
various degrees of excellence, but in which, as in other arts, no 
degree of excellence is to be attained without training. 
There are a number of scientific matters in which nearly 
everybody feels himself able to have and to express an opinion, 
as, for instance, scientific education, local geology, primeval his- 
tory, management of libraries, and evolution. The arrangement 
of a museum belongs to the same category, to the detriment of 
science, which has lost often and heavily by such volunteer efforts. 
The importance of thorough training for this business is shown 
by a large and abundant literature. The development of the art 
of managing collections in the manner above stated was followed, 
curiously enough, in a natural way by the exclusion of the non- 
scientific public from them. The inevitable and perhaps irrepa- 
rable loss of important specimens by persons not accustomed to 
handle such objects and ignorant of their value, together with 
the impossibility of securing all objects without impeding their 
exhibition, was the reason for excluding everybody except natu- 
talists. If we consider that every kind of exhibition necessitates 
large expenses for large rooms, and for arrangements conven- 
lent if not showy, and that just this time of progress demanded 
Immense sums of money, the expedient resorted to will be easily 
understood. 
With few exceptions, perhaps, for a quarter of a century most 
Museums became so exclusive that public admission was consid- 
ered a hindrance or a nuisance. Even after attempts were made . 
to give up this exclusiveness, something of it remained, and a 
natural consequence of this tendency was a sort of exclusiveness 
in the naturalists themselves, who stood aloof with their works 
