INTEODUCTORY COLLECTION. 
101 
administration, each of which is under the charge of an 
ofiicer styled " Keeper " and a staff of Assistants, there is a 
fifth, at present under the immediate supervision of the 
•Director, and arranged in the Central Hall, the specimens 
shown in which are intended to be an introduction to those 
exhibited in the others. 
Inclusive of the last-named collection, the whole of the The specimens 
specimens contained in the Museum, whether Animal, Vege- three^series."^ 
table, or Mineral, are thus arranged in three distinct series, 
each having its definite end and purpose, as follows : — 
I. An Elementary or Introductory Series, by which the introductory 
study of every group should commence. In this the leading series."^^'^^*^ 
features of the structure, and, so far as may be, the development 
of the various parts of some of the more typical members of 
each group, are demonstrated in a clear and simple manner, 
and the terms used in describing and defining them explained 
by means of illustrative examples. This idea is carried out in 
the Department of Mineralogy in a series of cases placed on 
the north or left-hand side of the gallery containing the rest of 
the collection. The introductory series to the vertebrated 
animals and to the plants has been referred to above in the 
notice of the Central Hall. 
II. The Exhibited Systematic Series, in which the most Exhibited 
important types of animal, plant, or mineral species are shown, seSes^^^^^ 
by means of specimens, arranged in a systematic manner, or 
one which exhibits, so far as may be, their natural relations 
to each other. Classification is an important feature in this 
series, which properly should be so exJ^ensive and so arranged 
as to enable visitors to the Museum, without recourse to 
assistance from the officials, to find every well-known and 
markedly distinct type of animal, plant, or mineral, and 
satisfy themselves about, at least, its external characters. In 
practice, with the amount of space available, and the resources 
at the disposal of the authorities, it has, however, been found 
impracticable to carry out this ideal in anything like its 
entirety, and in most instances only a selection of specimens 
is in consequence exhibited. 
While the two series above mentioned have for their 
object the diffusion of scientific knowledge, the next minis- 
