1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 147 
Natural history still consists principally in the knowledge of 
dead and preserved animals as seen in the museums. Eventually 
zodlogy became a museum zodlogy. Every worker knows the 
difficulty of using scientific works in comparing living or fresh 
specimens, though he has no difficulty at all with such as have 
undergone the regular museum process. r 
It would be unfair not to acknowledge the steps now taken by ° 
naturalists to overcome this still enormous difficulty, and the real 
progress already made; but nevertheless it is certainly a great 
advantage to science that in every museum the objects are pre- 
served in the same way. It is therefore clearly necessary to find 
the easiest means of reducing the evaporation of this expensive 
fluid, and this attempt has been made in all European museums 
during the last ten years. | 
We have now traced the development of collections of natural 
history to the present time. The separation of collections to ad- 
vance science from those designed to advance general knowl- 
edge will be doubtless a permanent one, and is to be considered 
as a sign of real progress, as a benefit to mankind. The collec- 
tions designed to advance science will be archives of all that has 
een done in science. The better the facts of science are pre- 
served, the better the archives will be. These collections will 
have only an indirect advantage for the public, just as a book is 
of no use before one is able to read. 
The noblest aim to be fulfilled by these scientific collections is 
to prepare the way and show how museums intended to advance 
knowledge, namely, collections for public instruction, can be 
made and arranged so as to be best fitted for their purpose. I 
believe that this way will not be difficult to discover, if the 
Purpose and the aim are clearly defined. As text-books must be 
adapted to the degree of knowledge of the student who is to pe- 
ruse them, so must museums correspond to the average standard 
of knowledge in the public which visits them; and as in text- 
ks this standard may be placed somewhat above the average 
knowledge, so collections should be formed which would necessi- 
tate the public to adapt itself to a higher standard — a thing 
mankind is always inclined to do. 
It will be found impossible to arrange museums exactly fitted 
for every kind of knowledge. As a certain limit must be given 
to them, it may be best to have at least one so-called epitome- 
collection, in which every beginner should find, as in arithmetic, 
© easiest means for acquiring further knowledge. The adoption 
