1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 145 
for pleasure or for general instruction. This somewhat hybrid 
tendency to satisfy at the same time science and the public proved 
to be detrimental to both these and the naturalist himself. Every 
country complained’ of the gradual conversion of scientific asso- 
ciations into popular audiences, with no scientific knowledge to 
speak of, and this had the usual effect even upon scientists. 
The conclusion is very simple ; the desire of advancing science 
is very different from that of advancing the knowledge of the non- 
scientific public, and both cannot be attended to at the same time 
and with the same means, without hindrance and injury to one or 
the other. The importance of the separation of these two has, 
during the last score of years, been more and more fully acknowl- 
edged. The plans of several museums recently built were appro- 
priate to different purposes, either scientific ones or those adapted 
to public instruction, and beautiful specimens of both these pat- 
terns are in existence. 
It was certainly strange and. unfitting to ask a naturalist to 
study in the same‘room an elephant and a small worm, so that 
rooms suitable for the best observation of both seemed to be a ne- 
cessity. The plan of scientific museums provides for the com- 
paratively small number of large animals large rooms or halls, 
and a series of small connected rooms, so that the different 
classes and orders may be kept separate, thus allowing a thor- 
oughly scientific arrangement of the objects, not to be altered 
for merely showy purposes. The creation of a scientific museum 
requires long and hard labor of generations of naturalists, and 
unless scientifically separated, the largest accumulation of objects 
of natural history forms only a sort of store-house. A museum 
cannot be bought at once with money, but must be developed by 
Steady work. The largest and most advanced museums in the 
- World have been arranged by three or even four succeeding gen- 
erations of naturalists, and are still more or less remote from the 
achievement of their intended perfection. ‘The only way to 
ten the work is to buy scientifically prepared collections, but 
the chance to do this is rare, and the difference between the ob- 
jects bought and those not yet worked up often creates an un- 
Pleasant discrepancy. ; 
he expedient of sending out persons to collect the natural 
objects of a number of countries for museums seems quite natural, 
and indeed has been resorted to in many cases. The financial 
result was generally unsuccessful, and the objects more expensive 
than the highest market price. No doubt such expeditions fur- 
* 0. 3. 10 
0) X. — yy 
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