GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF ITS CONTENTS. 
19 
collected in expeditions sent to explore unknown lands, to work 
out biological problems of the highest scientific importance, and 
generally to advance the knowledge of the science. In fact 
it is these reserve collections, occupying comparatively little 
room, kept up at comparatively little cost, and visited by 
comparatively few persons, which constitute, from a general 
scientific point of view, the most important part of the Museum, 
for by their means new knowledge is obtained, which, given 
forth to the world in the form of memoirs, books, or lectures, 
is ultimately diffused over a far wider area than that influenced 
even by the exhibited portions of the Museum. Indeed, with- 
out the means of study they afford, the order, arrangement, and 
power of imparting knowledge, which the exhibition galleries 
possess, would not be possible. 
It is important to bear in mind that if the whole of such 
specimens as are really required for enlarging the boundaries 
of knowledge were displayed in the public galleries, so that each 
one could be distinctly seen, a museum very many times larger 
than the present one would not suffice to contain them; the 
specimens themselves would be quite inaccessible to the exami- 
nation of all those capable of deriving instruction from them, and 
owing to the disastrous effects of exposure to light upon the 
greater number of preserved natural objects, would ultimately 
lose almost everything that now gives them value. This portion 
of the collection must, in fact, be treated as are the books in a 
library, and only used for consultation and reference by duly 
accredited students.* 
In some parts of the Museum the reserve collections are con- 
tained in drawers beneath the cases in which the corresponding 
exhibited portion is placed. This applies principally to the 
palseontological specimens, the shells, and the minerals. The 
reserve birds and insects have special rooms devoted to them, 
and the extensive series of reptiles, fishes, and other animals 
preserved in spirit, are kept for the purposes of safety in a 
separate building behind the Museum. In the Botanical 
Department the reserve collections are kept as usual in the 
well-known form of an Herbarium or Hortus siccus. 
* For conditions as to admission and regulation, see p. 48. 
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