340 PRACTICAL TAXIDEEMT. 



By far the best arrangement o£ invertebrates I bave ever seen 

 is tbat adopted at tbe Liverpool Museum under tbe auspices of 

 tbe Rev. H. H. Higgins, M.A., wbose views on tbe invertebrates 

 are very clearly defined in bis Introduction to a " Synopsis of an 

 Arrangement of Invertebrate Animals " contained in tbe Liver- 

 pool Museum. He says tberein : 



"Tbe series bad to be conformed to a linear arrangement. 

 In some respects tbis was a serious disadvantage. Tbe classes 

 of invertebrate animals cannot well be represented in a single 

 ascending or descending series. Probably it would not be 

 possible on any symmetrical plan to assign to tbem tbeir proper 

 positions relatively to eacb otber; but some palpable incon- 

 gruities migbt be avoided by tbe use of table-cases on a ground 

 plan resembling a genealogical tree, one proposed form of wbicb 

 is represented by a diagram in a work publisbed by Professor 

 Holleston. 



" Tbe importance of a suitable ground plan for cases in 

 museums seems to be mucb underrated. Wben a class of 

 students visit a museum frequently, tbe localities of cases 

 containing special groups become indelibly impressed upon tbe 

 memory. Tbis migbt be turned to good account. 



" In preparing tbe first scbeme of tbe collection, it seemed 

 essential tbat plain and moderately-simple printed descriptions 

 of tbe life-bistory of tbe animals sbould accompany tbe 

 specimens ; tberefore, as it was clearly impossible to describe 

 every genus, it became necessary to fix on some mode of asso- 

 ciating in groups a number of examples to wbicb tbe 

 descriptions migbt apply. Sucb divisions as * classes ' and 

 * orders ' were manifestly too large, wbilst ' families ' varied 

 from a single genus, including a solitary species, to an army 

 of more tban a thousand genera — e.g., tbe Linnsean families 

 Cerarnhycidce and Curculionidce in tbe Coleoptera. It was 

 witb some regret tbat tbe idea of attaching a readable sketch 

 to eacb division of a given rank in recent systems of classi- 

 fication was relinquished; but it was found to be impracticable, 

 and the life-history sketch thus became the foundation of 

 the arrangement eventually adopted. 



" Whether it might be a few species, or a genus, or a family, 

 or an order, that seemed to afford suitable scope for a page 



