February i, 1891] 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



13 



For a Museum whose buildings have only been 

 finished three years ago, it is wonderful to see how 

 well represented are certain branches of Natural 

 History. It is true that the collections of the old 

 Anthropological and Archaeological Museum of 

 Buenos Ayres have been translated in it ; neverthe- 

 less, Mr. Francisco P. Moreno, the Director of the 

 new Museum, must have worked incessantly and 

 diligently since 1887, and can be proud of the results 

 which he has obtained. If it goes on like that in 

 America for a few more years, I can see the day when 

 Students of Natural History will have to go to North 

 or South America to complete their Studies. 



Plate No. I. represents the outside frontage of the 

 Building. It consists of two floors and basement. 

 The first floor and basement are three thousand five 

 hundred yards square each, and not three hundred 

 thousand, as printed, surely by mistake, page 15. The 

 first floor is divided in fifteen large rooms containing 

 all the Collections. In the basement are the Work- 

 shops, general Laboratories, and deposits of Speci- 

 mens. The second floor, which occupies the central 

 part of the building, contains the Library and Fine 

 Arts. 



Plate II. shows the general plan of the first and 

 second floors. 



Plate III., the Lobby of the Museum, where are 

 painted sixteen large reproductions of savage Nature 

 and human life in Argentine Republic. 



Plate IV. Glyptodontes Room, eight specimens 

 exhibited. 



Plate V. Megatherium' s Room, showing four re- 

 mains of these large Mammals. 



Plate VI. Comparative Anatomy, showing the 

 skeletons of four Balaenopterae, one of them 24 yards 

 long, skeletons of Orca magellanica, Hyperoodon bur- 

 meisteri, Stenorhynchus leptonyx, and many others 



Plate VII. Anthropological Section, 

 hundreds of specimens of human skeletons and 

 skulls. 



Plate VIII. shows the Workshops where are pre- 

 pared the skeletons of Cetaceous Animals and other 

 large Mammals. 



I am sorry to read, page 30, that passage, // est 

 certain que nous ri avons pas encore de laboratoires d'in- 

 vestigations, mais je l'ai répété plusieurs fois le temps qui 

 s'est écoulé depuis la fondation du Musée est fort court et 

 l'on ne peut pas exiger davantage. Nevertheless, I say 

 that men like Don Francisco P. Moreno are an 

 honour to their country, and I congratulate him 

 heartily for all what he has done in so short a time, 

 and I wish him many years of perfect heallh to 

 enable him to end the installation of the Museum 

 which he has begun so well, and; above all, to open 

 immediately rooms for the use of Students. 



I consider this of such importance, that I will give 

 to the readers of this journal my idea of what I 

 consider a typical and practical Museum, small or 

 large. 



Supposing that I had a sum of ,£1,000 at my dis- 

 posal for the building and furnishing of a Museum, 

 and the purchasing of specimens, I should divide 

 that sum in three parts. 



The first would be for the building of the Museum, 

 the second for furnishing same, beginning with 



showing 



rooms for students, and the third for purchases of 

 specimens. 



The Museum should be built entirely on a ground 

 floor, about one yard above the level of the grounds 

 surrounding it. It should resemble exactly what is 

 known as a Roman Villa, with a yard in the centre, 

 surrounded with galleries. If in a cold country, they 

 should be closed hermetically with glazed windows 

 during the winter. It is these galleries which I should 

 devote to Students — plenty of room and plenty of 

 light. 



The Museum proper would consist of four, six, 

 eight, ten, or more rooms, communicating one with 

 another, and lighted with sky-lights, or by large 

 windows on the north side. 



The principal entrance should be in the middle of 

 the building, with a large ante-room. On the right, 

 Room No. 1, communicating with the next and the 

 next until the last one should be reached, and from 

 there to the ante-room of the entrance. 



The rooms should be about ten to twelve yards 

 long by six to eight wide, and about three and a half 

 high — not more, — as no object can be well seen above 

 two yards and a half. 



Glazed Cabinets, two yards and a half high, should 

 be disposed along the walls. If the objects for 

 exhibition were not fragile, or enclosed in glass cases, 

 shelves would be sufficient, but the first purchase to 

 make should be a Library, selected according to the 

 importance of the Museum, and working tables, 

 with its accessories of paper, pen and ink, for the 

 Students, all of which could be arranged in the 

 galleries surrounding the central yard, which could 

 be transformed in a garden, with a fountain in the 

 middle. 



Access should be gained to these galleries from the 

 ante-room, and only Students should be allowed in. 



The Library should be disposed on shelves, or in 

 book cases, along the walls of these galleries, which 

 ought to be at least five yards wide. 



With the third part of the money, if it was a 

 small sum, I should purchase only objects of 

 Natural History found in the Country, until I had 

 gathered a fine Collection of all the Mammals, 

 Birds, Reptiles, Fishes, Insects, Shells, etc., repre- 

 senting the local fauna, as also some specimens of 

 all the minerals and flora of the County, attaching 

 a special importance to all the species of animals 

 useful or injurious to Agriculture, and to all the 

 Trees, Plants, and Minerals useful in the alimenta- 

 tion of Man and Beasts, or wanted for Industry. 

 Medicine and Arts. 



This should be the beginning of all Museums, and 

 there are no Villages or Towns of 1,000 inhabitants 

 upwards which ought to be without. I should say 

 more, even in the smallest villages, a museum could be 

 created with very little or no money at all. 



School-rooms could be used, and the boys and girls 

 taught to collect all sorts of animals and prepare them 

 for the Museum. The only thing wanted is that the 

 Professors should understand the great importance of 

 teaching to all these children the study of animals, 

 plants or minerals, useful or injurious to mankind, 

 how to know them, how to make use of the first and 

 destroy the others. 



