1876.])} The Origin and Development of Museums. 148 | 
It now became impossible for private collections to compete with 
the larger and steadily advancing museums, and the old custom 
which rich merchants had kept up for several centuries of accu- 
mulating collections began to disappear, and, to the detriment of 
science, was rarely renewed. Nevertheless, some of the old col- 
lections of this kind have lasted even to our times. Of private 
collections the museum of Sir Ashton Lever, afterwards, if I am 
not mistaken, united with the British Museum, was one of the 
most prominent, and some others known now only through 
printed catalogues were important. | 
he Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, before it was transferred 
to the new rooms in 1861 was perhaps one of the most curious 
examples of the old style. Even in America, the East India 
museum in Salem, before the foundation of the Peabody Academy 
of Science, was a fair specimen of such collections of various 
objects of natural history, ethnological materials, and curiosities. 
Private collections were now devoted to special classes or 
orders, according to the taste of the owner, and even often sur- 
passed in their speciality larger museums. The impossibility of 
private students advancing natural history by means of large 
collections led quite naturally to associations and societies for this 
purpose, a considerable number of which were founded in nearly 
every country, so that science gained a large amount of facts, 
very prominent publications, and even more or less excellent 
collections. But soon most of them saw that their means 
Were not adequate to their exertions. The collections suffered 
first, as it was not possible to maintain and preserve, them in a 
scientific way. Later they grew to be a burden, and had to be 
given up more or less reluctantly, and the societies confined 
themselves to scientific work and publishing the results. There 
are a few exceptions where large means have been provided 
by patrons, and of these the Society of Natural History in Bos- 
ton is the most prominent, and is unrivaled in its collection 
` and manner of exhibition. Of course such societies have a task 
to accomplish which grows heavier every year. At any rate, 
Science is much indebted to them for providing means for the 
Publication of valuable matter which often would have been left 
unpublished without their generous help. ; 
The public itself looked upon the ardent exertions of the nat- 
walists with more curiosity than admiration, as the exclusive- 
ness of science was the cause of a very moderate standard of gen- 
eral knowledge, till some of the most prominent workers found it 
