Editorial Coinnicnt. 119 
displayed in a less satisfactory manner. In fact, unless each 
succeeding specimen illustrates some new feature, the smaller 
the display the hetter. But, how to so display a specimen as to 
get the maximum value, is a question with which the curators 
of every museum are still struggling. Color of case interiors, 
direction of light, character of label and many minor points 
have to be considered. In the department of geology the pre- 
vailing color for case interiors is a warm cream tint. Years 
of experience have shown this to give most general satisfac- 
tion, when its non-fading character and the var\'ing color of 
the specimens are taken into consideration. Labels are brief 
and printed with heavy- faced black type on gray green board. 
This color is not all that might be desired from a purely aes- 
thetic standpoint, but it has been selected as affording a label 
that is legible and non-fading ; the first essentials of a label are 
considered legibility and conciseness of statement. In the ear- 
ly history of the department, labels were much larger than at 
present. It was found, however, that not merely would it 
prove to be a practical impossibility to label the entire collec- 
tion as fully as proposed, but that the public did not demand 
such. Certain striking sj^ecimens of large size, or of peculiar 
interest for other reasons, do demand full explanatory labels. 
In the systematic series it has, however, been found that a brief 
label, giving name and locality, best serves the purpose, addi- 
tional information being given in the case label and in books of 
reference placed upon the tables in the halls. As a rule, no 
specimen such as cannot be replaced is put upon exhibition, if 
more liable to injury or deterioration there than in the drawers 
of the reserve series. Nor is a specimen necessarily considered 
as withdrawn from the study series by being placed upon ex- 
hibition. 
The question of getting a maximum number of specimens 
into a case, with a minimum amount of interference or shadow, 
has been quite satisfactorily solved, so far as the section of ver- 
tebrate fossils is concerned, by the means shown in plate V. 
As will be noted, shelving is done away with, excepting that 
afforded by the bottom of the case and two narrow shelves at 
the top, for large and heavy materials which are often out of 
classification as compared with the rest of the exhibit. The 
fossils are here cemented to encaustic tiles of standard 
