214 
Scientific Nomenclature. [April, 
posed and assumed undecomposable bodies ; in Astronomy 
“ elements ” are the data necessary for ascertaining the piace 
of a planet or comet ; in Electricity an “ element ” is a unit 
of a galvanic combination, &c. Many more such instances 
might be sought up if it were needful to furnish a catalogue. 
There are two words, not strictly belonging to scientific 
nomenclature, which should here be considered ; both have 
outgrown, or rather have grown away from, their original 
meanings, and hence call for a re-adjustment. 
The word “ museum ” is now, in England, applied to two 
classes of establishments which, save the name, have very 
little in common. The one class is simply Wardour Street 
on a magnified scale. It is fitted with objects of human 
production, and illustrates the career of art, “ fine ” or in- 
dustrial, and the waverings of fashion. 
Museums of the second class are destined for the reception 
of specimens illustrative of some science, and which are, or 
might have been, the products of Nature. Class I. receives 
old furniture, bric-a-brac, clothing, pictures, statues, idols, 
weapons, and the like. Class II. is for geological, mineral- 
ogical, botanical, and zoological specimens. As a rule it 
will be found that the persons who take an especial and a 
thoughtful interest in the one kind of museum will care but 
little about the other. The mere holiday sight-seer alone 
will stroll through both as he hastens to his great attraction, 
the refreshment-room — thatrecent and injudicious appendage 
to museums. 
It may, however, be said that articles of human produc- 
tion illustrate, at any rate, one Science which of late years 
is receiving great and wide attention throughout the civilised 
world. This is true : articles of “bigotry and virtue ” may 
be viewed as ethnological, or indeed as anthropological, do- 
cuments^ But whilst admitting the difficulty here, as in all 
our classifications, of drawing a hard-and-fast boundary line, 
I would suggest one which may be adopted for the sake of 
convenience. Let all products of pre-historic art be referred 
to the Museum of Science,— all of a later age to the Museum 
of Art and Industry. 
We need, then, two distinct words for museums of these 
two classes, to save the necessity of explanations. 
The other word to which I refer is Aquarium. This name 
was first given to receptacles of water, large or small, in 
which the development and life of aquatic plants and ani- 
mals might be conveniently studied. So far all was well, 
the only question being whether Aquarium or Aqua-vivarium 
should be accepted as the correct term. John Bull’s craving 
