82 
THE INDIAN MUSEUM: 1814—1914. 
of the scientific staffs and at the same time a fertility of 
resource in meeting their needs—more particularly in the 
important matters of lighting and ventilation, that has not 
always been displayed in the erection of museum buildings. 
The cost of these laboratories was approximately Rs. 1,22,000 
and was met from a special grant made for the improvement 
of the Museum by Lord Curzon’s Government in 1904 and 
augmented by that of Lord Minto in 1906. 
In addition to the space occupied by the laboratories a 
considerably greater area is covered by the cabinets that contain 
the zoological collections not exhibited to the public. Except 
in the case of specimens that are practically indestructible, 
only duplicate material is now displayed in the show-cases of 
the public galleries. 
It is not possible to approach the question of the utiliza¬ 
tion of the Museum collections for purposes of display and 
popular education with the same confidence as that with 
which their scientific utilization has been discussed. Super¬ 
intendents of the Indian Museum have been faced through¬ 
out its history as a government institution by the fact that 
the funds at their disposal have not been adequate both to 
encourage zoological research, and to display to the public 
its results in a manner worthy of an Imperial Museum. 
They have deliberately chosen the alternative that seemed 
to them, in the peculiar circumstances prevalent in India, 
the better of the two, and have frankly claimed that the chief 
function of the zoological section must be to act as a centre 
of investigation. 
The peculiar difficulties that exist in India in respect to 
the public galleries of a zoological museum are both physical 
and educational. On the one hand we have the tropical light, 
and a comparatively great range of temperature ; on the 
other, both the illiterate condition of the vast majority of 
the visitors and the eagerness with which students learn the 
statements on labels by rote. The last is a difficulty that it 
is apparently by no means easy for a museum-curator in 
Europe to appreciate, but it is a very real one in Bengal, 
if not also in other countries. Another fact that has un- 
