764 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXIII. 
Vienna. — The magnificent building of the Naturhistorisches 
Hofmuseum, which has been open to the public since 1889, 
is probably the most costly structure in the world devoted to 
purposes of a natural history museum. It is in the form of a 
hollow rectangle, 554 feet long and 230 feet broad. It is 
lighted from the side by numerous long windows. Only the 
outer two-thirds of the building is devoted to exhibition halls. 
The inner third is used for work and storage rooms, study col- 
lections, etc. This arrangement has the advantage of securing 
the best light for the exhibition halls and of making the work 
and storage rooms closely adjacent to the corresponding collec- 
tions. It is also to be noted that the arrangement of the halls 
is such as to compel a consecutive line of progress from the 
single entrance and back to it again. A unique and pleasing 
feature of the interior decorations is the adornment of the walls 
of many of the halls by paintings which relate to or illustrate 
‘the collections. Of the thirty-nine halls, five are devoted to 
the mineralogical-petrological collections and five to the paleon- 
tological. The first hall of the mineralogical series contains 
what is termed a terminological collection in which the forms, 
properties, and genesis of minerals are illustrated. The two 
adjoining halls and part of a third contain the systematic min- 
eral collection arranged according to Groth’s system. The 
second of these halls contains as well the collection of precious 
stones and a collection of ores. The remainder of the third 
hall is occupied by a collection of building materials, marbles, 
etc., while in Hall No. 5 are the systematic rock collection and 
the world-famous collection of meteorites. 
The cases adopted are, for the floors, desk cases of mahog- 
any with pyramidal tops of low slope; for the walls, vertical 
cases of mahogany about 8 feet high and 2 feet deep, on bases 
3 feet high. The floor cases accommodate only small specimens; 
the large specimens are shown in the wall cases. The case 
interiors are black. The method of mounting employed is that 
of black walnut blocks. 
One difficult problem in mounting, viz., a proper installation 
of cave specimens, seems to have been solved in this museum. 
The stalactites are fastened to individual wooden shelves pro- 
