352 



The Scottish Naturalist. 



The Cost of Maintenance depends of course on the nature 



and scale of the museums. In the Report they are divided into 

 four groups or classes, from First to Fourth ; excluding the National 

 Museums in Edinburgh and Dublin, each of which costs about 

 £1 0,000 per annum. It appears that the cost of a first-class 

 museum, while in course of formation, is about ^"800 per annum, 

 of a second-class museum from ^"ioo to ^500, and of a third- 

 class from ^£25 to ^100. The fourth-class museums are usually 

 in a very bad state, and have very little spent upon them. 



The Paid Staff of a first-class museum includes at least a cura- 

 tor, at a minimum salary of ^150 ; an assistant, at a minimum sal- 

 ary of ^30; and two workmen or caretakers, at minimum salaries 

 of ^25 each. 



The second-class museums have usually a curator and a care- 

 taker ; while third-class museums have usually only a caretaker. 



In the second-class and third-class museums a considerable 

 amount of help is given in voluntary assistance by honorary cura- 

 tors and others interested in their welfare. In the first-class 

 museums there is less of such assistance or none, the paid curator- 

 ship not favouring such co-operation. 



The union of the two offices of curator of the Museum and 

 librarian of the Public Library does not usually prove to be a 

 success, though sometimes resorted to for economy, as the library 

 is apt to be treated as the more important institution, the funds 

 devoted to the museum being too small for its needs in many cases. 

 Yet there is great advantage in having the library and museum close 

 together, the books in the library and the specimens in the museum 

 supplementing one another. Some well-conducted museums that 

 belong to local societies are almost wholly carried on by the volun- 

 tary labours of members of these societies, without the services of 

 a curator, or even of a caretaker in some cases ; but, necessarily, 

 these museums are undesirably liable to fluctuations in their pro- 

 gress, from which the museums provided with a paid staff are free. | 



The facility of access to the public is of course dependent largely 

 on the source of income, rate-supported museums with paid staffs 

 being open free usually for four or five days per week, from 10 a.m. 

 till dusk, or till 8 or 9 p.m. it gas is used ; while the museums be- 

 longing to societies or to private persons are frequently open only 

 on certain afternoons in the week, or on special application. 



The total Floor-space in a first-class museum should not be 



