PROCEEDINGS-PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. lxXXV 
a state of nature within that boundary will be rigorously excluded. 
You have already an admirable beginning for such a collection, 
thanks to the exertions of many of your members, among whom I 
cannot refrain from mentioning my old and valued friend Colonel 
Drummond-Hay, who, as you all know, has for many years made the 
perfection of the collection of Tayside birds one of the principal 
objects of his life. A moderate amount of curatorial work continu¬ 
ously applied as new specimens come in—for it will be a long time 
before the natural history even of this limited region is exhausted in 
all its aspects—will make that collection one of deep interest to all 
intelligent dwellers in the district, and a model to be followed in other 
provincial museums. 
But natural history in its various branches is now becoming a 
subject of general education. There is a large class of persons who 
will in all probability, year by year, as time goes on, bear a greater 
relative proportion to the general population of the country, persons 
who, without having the time, the opportunities, or the ability to make 
a profound study of any branch of science, yet take a general interest 
in its progress, and wish to possess some knowledge of the world 
around them and of the principal facts ascertained with regard to 
it, or at least some portions of it. For such persons museums might 
be, when well organised and arranged, of benefit to a degree that can 
scarcely be realised at present. For all such, and for any systematic 
teaching of either zoology, botany, or geology, although the local 
collection may be of some help, it is by no means sufficient. The 
animals, plants, or minerals of one district, especially of a district 
which, owing to our climate, cannot be considered an especially 
favoured one in its fauna or its flora, are quite inadequate to give a 
general and consistent idea of the richness and variety of the natural 
productions of the world in which we live. For that purpose we 
must have another collection, the contents of which are taken from 
all available sources. That is the collection contained in the second 
room, and it is the one upon which the skill, the knowledge, the 
judgment, and the capacity of the museum curator will be exercised 
to the utmost. Instead of welcoming every addition if originating 
within the prescribed limits, as in the case of the former series, it will 
be one of his principal duties sternly to refuse everything that does 
not distinctly claim a definite place in the system he has adopted. 
The general plan of the series must first be determined on, nothing 
being admitted that does not fall in with it, and rigidly kept to. The 
number of specimens must be strictly limited, according to the nature 
of the subject to be illustrated and the space available. None must 
be placed too high or too low for ready examination. There must 
be no crowding of specimens one behind the other, every one must 
be perfectly and distinctly seen, and with a clear space round it. 
Imagine a picture gallery with half the pictures on the walls partially 
or entirely concealed by others hung in front of them. The idea 
seems preposterous, and yet that is still the approved arrangement of 
specimens in most public museums. If an object is worth putting 
into a gallery at all it is worth such a position as will enable it to be 
seen. Every specimen exhibited should be good of its kind, and all 
H 
