No. 3851.] MOTES ON SOME EUROPEAN MUSEUMS. 715 
of the mass of notes are the following: India ink is the only 
suitable medium to use for preparing pen-written labels, and 
great care must be exercised in the selection of type for printed 
labels, so that they may be readily and perfectly legible. Cellu- 
loid makes a handsome material on which to prepare certain 
showy labels, though some object to it on account of its inflam- 
mable nature. Certainly numbers of celluloid plates ought not 
to be stored together anywhere about a museum. Labels for 
individual specimens should be concise, clear, and brief, while 
those for groups should be more explanatory in character. 
Series introductory to the general collections are of the highest 
value in a public museum, and should be well supplied with 
diagrams, figures, charts, and explanatory labels, to make their 
meaning clear to the average visitor. Brass wire is a most 
useful thing for making supports of all forms for specimens 
and labels. The top and bottom shelves of most upright and 
wall cases can be well utilized only for large specimens and 
masses which do not require close inspection. Wooden blocks 
can be used to good advantage for the installation of specimens 
only in upright and wall cases, and then are best adapted to 
minerals. Tablets of manila board from about +f of an inch in 
thickness are an excellent mount for most fossils, though trays 
and glass-covered boxes and glass tubes are necessary for some 
forms. The manila tablets should be covered with paper of 
some light color that will not fade. Light cream color is now 
being used in the British Museum, but French gray is con- 
sidered by most persons to be the most durable color. White 
is not at all lasting. Fragile specimens, or those with a thin 
epidermis, should not be cemented to tablets, but should be kept 
in place by means of pins. In general, it is best to mount 
Specimens in such a manner as to permit of their ready 
removal for close examination or study. Metal frames for 
cases have found much favor on the Continent of Europe, and 
they certainly have a great advantage in that the framework 
presents the least possible obstruction to light and vision; but 
they are difficult to make and to handle, and they do not pro- 
duce as good an achitectural effect in a gallery as wooden 
cases, 
