THE INVERTEBRATES IN THE LIVERPOOL MTJSETJM. 341 



of readable and instructive matter, it was decided that, througli- 

 out tlie entire collection, such, a group should be segregated, 

 so as to form the unit of the series. Eventually, in order that 

 the sketches, which it was proposed to print for that purpose 

 on tablets, might all be in positions where they could con- 

 veniently be read, it was found to be expedient that each group 

 or unit should occupy an equal space; and as the blocks on 

 which the table-cases rested were to be fitted up with trays, 

 or drawers, twelve of which would occupy the table-case without 

 loss of room, these trays or drawers were adopted as the 

 receptacles and boundaries of the groups. 



" The entire plan of the table-cases, and the limits of many 

 of the groups, were committed to writing before any considerable 

 advance had been made in procuring specimens. In one respect 

 this circumstance was found to be very advantageous — our 

 desiderata were at once well defined. It was an object that 

 each of the groups should be illustrated by carefully-selected 

 specimens, and, until this could be attained, other acquisitions- 

 need not be sought for. In making purchases, such an object, 

 steadily kept in view, exercises a powerful influence against 

 the seductive attractions of ' great bargains,' which often turn 

 out to be great misfortunes to a museum. Moreover, in 

 accepting donations, it is sometimes convenient to be able 

 to refer to a fixed plan. Where room is scanty, as in most 

 museums, nothing is more subversive of order, or more fatal 

 to an instructive arrangement, than the gift of a collection, 

 coupled with a stipulation that it must be displayed in some 

 special way.* It is far better to forego the possession even of 

 a valuable series of specimens than to sacrifice order for their 



sake The following is the plan of arrangement adopted. 



in connection with each group: Wherever circumstances per- 

 mit, the plan for each group includes (1) A printed schedule, 

 (2) Exotic species, (3) British representatives, (4) The printed 

 tablet, (5) Earliest fossils, (6) Diagrams and other illustrations,. 

 (7) Species and varieties on a more extended scale." 



* "We possess in the Leicester Museum a very fine collection of the whole of the " British " 

 Birds (totally devoid, however, of a history of the specimens) called the " Bickley Oollection " 

 — bequeathed to the town under these conditions— which, could we have used it to embellish, 

 our present arrangement, would have saved money, and, what is still more important, the- 

 entire wall space of a small room now devoted to them. 



