"local" and "general" collections to be separated. 331 



by any means liave the usefulness of musenms stop here. Com- 

 paring any local collection with a general collection, it will, 

 of course, be found that many important groups of animals, 

 vegetables, and minerals, are but imperfectly represented, whilst 

 others are altogether blank. There is, consequently, great 

 danger of very limited and inadequate notions of the great 

 system of iN'ature being formed by the student who confines his 

 a,ttention to local natural history. To counteract such a 

 tendency, it is eminently desirable to form, under proper 

 ■conditions, a general collection, which will give the visitor some 

 notion of, at any rate, the larger groups in which natural 

 bodies are classified. There should, consequently, be two 

 departments to our central museum — one local and the other 

 ■general — each with distinct aims, and each appealing to a 

 distinct class of visitors." These being exactly my views, 

 but with the radical change of wishing to mount both collections 

 pictorially, I considered that, although the newly-erected wall- 

 oases in oak, with single sheets of plate-glass, 7ft. Gin. by 5ft., 

 were, when filled as I projected, admirably suited to interest 

 the general public, who comprise, perhaps, nine-tenths of 

 museum visitors, yet that the claims of the respectable minority 

 of students, artists, and quasi- scientific people should not be 

 neglected, and for these the local fauna, &c., should be perse- 

 veringly collected and mounted with all the appliances which 

 science and art can suggest. To do this properly, and to 

 preserve groups for an indefinite time, it is necessary, and 

 indeed indispensable, that each group of male, female, nest 

 and eggs, or young, should be mounted in a separate case, or 

 in separate divisions of a row of cases quite distinct from the 

 general collection. Although I had assumed, and, indeed, had 

 ^he courage of my opinions, that the pictorial method of 

 •displaying natural history specimens was a great improvement 

 upon the old peg system, I recognised the difficulties attendant 

 upon this and also that many excellent authorities were adverse 

 to any pictorial arrangement whatever. And, indeed, if we come 

 "to the consideration of "true science," I unhesitatingly assert 

 -that end is best served by a collection of properly authenti- 

 cated birds' shins scientifically arranged in cabinets, and not 

 fmounted in any way whatever ; but although this method might 



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