EXHIBITED SERIES. 
77 
tion, each of which is under the charge of an officer 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. Owing 
to the difficulty of procuring specimens, and the time needed 
for their preparation and arrangement, some years must elapse 
before it can be completed. 
When the last-named collection is more fully developed, the The specimens 
whole of the specimens contained in the Museum, whether aUarrangedin 
Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, will be 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 sg^fes"^^^^^^ 
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 vertebrate 
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 forms are shown, 
by means of carefully-selected and well-preserved 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 should be so extensive 
and so arranged as to ensure that visitors to the Museum can 
find, without recourse to assistance from the officials, every well- 
known and markedly distinct type of animal, plant, or mineral, 
and satisfy himself about, at least, its external characters. In 
carrying out this ideal, great modifications have to be made in 
practice, partly depending upon the readiness, or the reverse, 
with which the members of different groups lend themselves 
for exhibition, partly upon the exigencies of space, and partly 
