CHAPTER XL 
GUIDE-BOOKS, CATALOGUES AND LECTURES. 
The question of guide-books is always a difEcult one ; in a 
polyglot country like India the difficulty is increased^ nor 
is it lessened by the fact that the vast majority of those 
who visit museums are illiterate in all languages. Further¬ 
more, guide-books may become an actual temptation to the 
college student already all too prone to cram for his examina¬ 
tions. 
However, attempts have been made in the Indian Mu¬ 
seum to overcome, or rather to evade, the difficulty—not 
altogether without success if one may accept the criterion of 
sales—by publishing guide-books in simple English. 
In the archaeological galleries the late Dr. John Ander¬ 
son’s Catalogue,” to which tribute is paid on p. 31 of this 
volume, belongs practically to the category, as is indicated in 
its full title; it deals not only with the specimens but with 
their (former) position in the galleries. The late Dr. Bloch’s 
supplement, published in 1912 by the Archaeological Survey, 
does so still more frankly. But these are lather for the learned 
visitor, a rara avis in Calcutta, than for the populace or 
the ordinary educated man. 
A real guide-book to the art galleries, that is to say one 
for the average educated person, already exists in manuscript 
and will, we hope, be published before long. 
Members of the Geological Survey have written ' ‘ Popular 
Guides” to several of the geological galleries, and although 
these are included among the publications of the Survey and 
not of the Museum, they should be mentioned here. The fol¬ 
lowing list is taken from the cover of a recent part of the 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
Popular guides to the Geological collections in the Indian Museum, 
Calcutta. 
No. 1. Tertiary verjbebrate animals. By R. Lydekker (18/9) {out 
of print). 
No. 2. Minerals. By F, R. Mallet (1879) {out of print). 
