THREE NATURAL KINGDOMS. 
95 
as Chemistry and Physiology, though essentially belonging to 
the domain of Natural History, have not found a place here. It 
is only the results of the working of these processes or laws, as 
shown in the modifications of the arrangement of the elementary 
substances of which the material of the Universe is composed, 
which can be fully illustrated by specimens admitting of being 
readily preserved and permanently exhibited in a museum. A 
JTatural History Museum, therefore, in the sense in which the 
term is now usually understood, is a collection of the various 
objects, animate and inanimate, found upon the earth in a state 
of nature. It will be readily understood that as the study of 
such objects is one of the principal means by which the laws 
leading to their formation or arrangement may be traced 
out, it is of the utmost importance for the progress of those 
departments of knowledge which the Museum is designed to 
cultivate, to bring together as full an illustrative series of these 
objects as possible. 
Although the validity of the division of natural objects Division into 
into inorganic and organic or living has been the subject of y^etable 
some discussion, and although the separation of the latter into and Animal. 
vcgctallc and animal is perhaps less absolute than was once 
supposed, yet for practical purposes. Mineral, Vegetable, and 
Animal still remain the three great divisions or " kingdoms " 
into which natural bodies are grouped, and this classification 
has formed the basis of the arrangement of the collections in 
the Museum. 
I. Inorganic substances occur in nature in a gaseous, Mineralogicai 
liquid, or solid form. With very few exceptions, it is department, 
only in the latter state that they can be conveniently 
preserved and exliibited in a museum, and it is to such that 
the term mineral " is commonly limited. The collection, 
classification, and exhibition of specimens of tliis kind is the 
office of the Mineralogicai Department of the Museum, to 
which, as already mentioned, is devoted the large gallery on 
the first floor of the east wing of the building. 
II. The study of the vegetable kingdom, so far as it can be Botanical 
illustrated by preserved specimens, is the province of the dep^^*°^e^t. 
Department of Botany, Avhich occupies the upper floor of the 
east wing. 
