11 PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
1. Museum of the Boston Society of Natural Science.— 
In this Museum an attempt is made to combine the functions of both 
a general and a local Museum, and necessarily the result has been 
somewhat detrimental to both aims. It has, however, some good 
features, such as cases set apart for elementary typical specimens and 
models, which may be borrowed by School Teachers and used for 
object lessons. The cases are of light oak, and are not made on the 
most modern plan. The idea of the general arrangement is good in 
theory, but is too complicated to be easily followed, even by the 
student, in going round the collections. It is that the specimens 
should exhibit the resultant of the various forces of nature, both on 
Plant and Animal life and on the inorganic world. The result, how¬ 
ever, was only to confuse the eye. 
2. The Agassiz Museum, Harvard College, Cambridge, 
Mass. —This Museum, apart from its intrinsic merits, has a special 
interest for the Naturalist from its association with its great founder, 
Louis Agassiz, whose bust meets the visitor on entering the vestibule. 
In it I found the only attempt at a really comprehensive and 
educational Type collection—or “Synoptical” collection, as it is 
there called—that I met with in America. It is not extensive, and 
is contained in one comparatively small room, but the specimens are 
well selected, and are arranged with the greatest possible care. The 
group labels are printed in bold type, and fixed conspicuously on the 
walls, over the cases. One novel and useful feature is that different 
colours of card are used for mounting the specimens to denote their 
geological horizon if extinct, a darker shade being used if the species 
or group is still living. Black arrows are painted on the inside of the 
glass, to indicate the direction in which the series runs. Small draw¬ 
ings and group descriptions are freely used. Composite table and 
upright cases and wall cases are used for the Synoptical collection, 
the vertebrates being placed in the latter. The General Collections 
are arranged in two series, a Systematic and a Faunistic. The latter 
is particularly interesting, being arranged in a series of rooms opening 
off each other, each containing specimens from one of the great conti¬ 
nental or oceanic areas. The most popular section of this Museum 
is a room containing a unique collection of glass models of typical 
North American flowers, showing, besides the natural appearance 
of the flower, enlarged models of dissections, fructification, &c. 
These models have been prepared—or, rather, are being pre¬ 
pared, for the series is not yet complete—by a German firm, at the 
expense of a wealthy Boston lady, who engaged their exclusive 
services for a period of ten years. The models are displayed in flat- 
topped table cases got up in the most sumptuous manner. The 
whole building is of fire-proof material, is well lighted, and painted 
white inside. On the top storey, besides reference library and offices, 
are laboratories where eight students can carry on original researches 
in physiology, embryology, &c., with the assistance of liberal endow¬ 
ments. In examining the Agassiz Museum, I was indebted to the 
kind assistance of Prof. E. L. Mark, who occupies the Chair of Com¬ 
parative Physiology in Harvard College. 
