1S75.] 387 • ' [Hagen. 



Dr. H. A. Hagen gave an historical sketch of the develop- 

 ment of natural history museums, bringing the subject, how- 

 ever, for want of time, down only to the period of Linnaeus. 



He considered the ancient votive offerings deposited in the temples 

 to be the origin of collections of natural history, which, through the 

 number and importance of their objects, were somewhat instructive. 

 This ancient custom still exists to some extent where superstition or 

 faith goes before science. Later we find science advancing by means 

 of collections of natural objects. But the lack of means of preserv- 

 ing them retarded the progress of science fer a number of centuries. 

 From the time of Aristotle to that of Albert the Great, and even of 

 Conrad Gesner, there was only a traditional science. The collec- 

 tions vanished with the masters, and the works containing the results 

 of their duties could not be made accessible before the introduction 

 of printing. The possibility of preserving collections made the work 

 of science easier, while the means of making known its results 

 through the art of printing gave a new impulse to knowledge, and 

 brought into the field a whole army of observers and keen students, 

 who soon overthrew the old scholastic rubbish heaped up purposely 

 over the beautiful results of Aristotle and his followers by an ignorant 

 or wilfully ignoring Church. The beginning of the Reformation was 

 the beginning of science. The time immediately following was over- 

 crowded with new facts, and the number of workers was inadequate 

 to the affluence of the material. Natural history collections pre- 

 sented a curious mass of more or less imperfect objects unscientific- 

 ally prepared and arranged. Most of the collections were in the 

 hands of individuals richer in money than in learning, yet eager to 

 foster both science and general knowledge. This period of incon- 

 gruity was that of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 



The remarkable time of Linnseus begins a new era in the history 

 of science, which obtained a new basis through the classification of 

 everything existing. Henceforth evidence of the recorded facts in 

 natural history was to be preserved through the preservation of the 

 described objects themselves. Scientific students are unanimous in 

 regarding the works of the great Linnaeus as the corner stone of 

 science. The preeminent value of collections of types was first rec- 

 ognized when Sweden did not shrink from sending a man-of-war to 

 recover collections which had been legally sold to another country. 



