D. C. Danielssen. 



25 



among those largo classes of the people tliat have but little time 

 to read, and who cannot afford to buy hooks — , the idea of this 

 importance did not occur to those men who managed the museum 

 during its first 25 years. Those who were members belonged to the 

 well-to-do elasses. and then as now, they — as soon as the first 

 flush of interest was over — became haughty and blasé towards the 

 institution they had helped to establish. Such a conclusion one 

 seems justified to draw from the steadily increasing list of arrears 

 in the yearly contributions, and from the lists of the annual number 

 of visitors. From November Ist 1851 to the same date in 1852, 

 the number of members who visited the museum on the two or three 

 days in the week it was open, was only 300 (156 gentlemen and 144 

 ladies N . ; although the number of members was 245 (April 1852), 

 and although the nearest female relatives of the members were 

 admissable. It is true. however, that the visits paid during the 

 yearly exhibition at whitsunticle, when, besides the members and 

 their nearest relatives, all those who had given any thing to the 

 museum were admitted, are not inclucled in these numbers, and 

 the number of such visitors must have been considerable. 



And it is not much to be wondered at that the interest in 

 visiting the museum had slackened. when we find what a state 

 of confusion and discomfort it was in, even after the so-called 

 "New building'' was opened in 1841. As for any systematic or synoptic 

 arrangement of the very various objects belonging to the collec- 

 tion, such a thing was never dreamed of. Nor coulcl it easily have 

 been provided as until 1846 a really scientific management was 

 absoluty wanting, and even after the appointment of a curator, 

 the scientific aicl was quite insufficient on. account of the small salary 

 that could be offered. The actual work of management fell on the board, 

 whose members were not professional men, and who had not always 

 time to devote themselves to the business in such a manner as 

 old Christie had done, who for the museum's sake gave up the last 

 part of his life to zoological studies. The managers did their best 

 and performed a great deal of useful work, but it could not be 

 expected that a few men, who had their own business to mind, 

 should be able to keep in good order a comparatively large museum, 

 especially as the same people had to take charge of both the anti- 

 quarian and natur al history collections. A systematic arrangement was 

 consequently not to be expected. and in the midst of really good 

 antiquities, were mixed up curiosities without a trace of real 



