lxxxii PROCEEDINGS-PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. . 
upon which knowledge is built up ? In many branches of science, 
especially those commonly called natural history, the progress is 
mainly commensurate with the abundance and accessibility of such 
materials. Though the first duty of museums is, without question, to 
preserve the materials upon which the history of mankind and the 
knowledge of science is based, any one acquainted with the numerous 
succession of essays, addresses, lectures, and papers which constitute 
the museum literature of the last thirty years must recognise the 
gradual development of the conception that the museum of the future 
is to have for its complete ideal, not only the simple preservation of 
the objects contained in it, but also their arrangement in such a man¬ 
ner as to provide for the instruction of those who visit it. The value 
of a museum will be tested, not only by its contents, but by the treat¬ 
ment of those contents as a means of advancing knowledge. 
The first recorded institution which bore the name of museum, 
meaning a temple or haunt of the Muses, was that founded by Ptolemy 
Soter, at Alexandria, about 300 b.c. ; but that was not a museum in 
our sense of the word, but rather, in accordance with its etymo¬ 
logy, a place appropriated to the cultivation of learning, which was 
frequented by a Society or Academy of learned men devoting them¬ 
selves to philosophical studies and the pursuit of knowledge. Passing 
over the slight indications left of the existence of collections at all 
resembling our modern museums among the ancients, we find with 
the revival of learning in the middle ages that the collecting instinct, 
inborn in so many persons of various nations and periods of history, 
but so long in abeyance, sprang into existence with considerable 
vigour, and a museum, now meaning a collection of miscellaneous 
objects, as well as natural curiosities, often associated with a gallery 
of sculpture and painting, became a fashionable appendage to the 
establishment of many wealthy persons of superior culture. All the 
earliest collections comparable to what we call museums were formed 
by and maintained at the expense of private individuals; sometimes 
by physicians, whose studies naturally led them to a taste for biological 
science; often by great merchant princes, whose trading connections 
afforded opportunities for bringing together things that were con¬ 
sidered curious from foreign lands; or by ruling monarchs in their pri¬ 
vate capacity. In every case they were maintained mainly for the 
gratification of the possessor or his personal friends, and were rarely, 
if ever, associated with any systematic teaching or public benefit. 
In England the earliest important collectors of miscellaneous 
objects were the two John Tradescants, father and son, the latter of 
whom published in 1656 a little work called “Museum Tradescan- 
itanum; or a Collection of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth, 
near London.” The wonderful variety and incongruous juxtaposition 
of the objects contained in that collection make the catalogue very 
amusing reading. Upon the association of individuals together into 
Societies to promote the advancement of knowledge, these bodies in 
their corporate capacity frequently made the formation of a museum 
part of their function. The earliest instance is that of the Royal Society 
in Crane Court, of which an illustrated catalogue was published by 
Dr. Grew, in 1681. The idea that the maintenance of a museum is a 
