MUSEUMS AS EDUCATIONAL ADJUNCTS. 
193 
“My own experience and the observation of others in several schools, com¬ 
pels me to the conclusion that such instruction should either be received before 
entering the school, or, after entrance rigidly restricted within very narrow limits, 
according to the practical advantage desirable therefrom.” 
Of course there should be a complete set of normal osteological specimens, 
illustrative of the various stages of development in the human being, and arranged 
in serial order; also the pathological conditions of bony tissue should be repre¬ 
sented, and particular attention should be paid to the preservation of the soft parts 
of the body, both normal and pathological. 
Normal .—I would suggest the careful preparation of an extended series of 
dissections of well injected specimens, to illustrate the anatomy and physiological 
relations of certain important portions of the body; these to be mounted and per¬ 
manently preserved in clear glass jars, and used for public, class and laboratory 
instruction. 
In regard to such preparations it may be argued that it would be better 
for the student to make the dissection himself, and that their permanent pres¬ 
ervation involves an unnecessary waste of money and labor. But it must be 
remembered that the majority of medical students have not the necessary skill to 
make these artistic dissections. Furthermore, to make them it requires much 
time, and even if the necessary skill were possessed by the average medical 
student, it would not be advisable to have him spend so much of his valuable 
time in almost purely artistic work. One of the great secrets of a successful life 
is to avoid unnecessary expenditure of time and labor. The medical student 
should certainly dissect every part of the body most thoroughly, and make out 
from his dissections the exact relations of the parts. But the point I wish to make 
is that it would be time thrown away for him to attempt such artistic work when 
his medical pupilage is so short. And, further, it is always desirable to have 
such specimens readily accessible for demonstration. 
Pathological .—Specimens representing the pathological changes in the soft 
parts should be carefully prepared and mounted in the same way as suggested 
for the lfbrmal soft parts, care being taken to illustrate as fully as possible all the 
pathological changes which are known to take place in a given organ or part 
of an organ. Corresponding to the number on the label of such specimens, there 
should be kept in a suitable book, always accessible, a full account of the clinical 
history of the patients from whom they were taken, and thus they will be made 
doubly useful to both student and professor. Such specimens as these should al¬ 
ways be accessible to medical men for the purpose of illustration or description, 
in their writings. 
A full supply of histological and pathological specimens should be expressly 
preserved and kept in stock for those who wish to study them microscopically, 
and prepare therefrom a typical series of permanent preparations for future refer¬ 
ence and study. These specimens need occupy but very little space, for they can 
be placed in earthen or cheap glass jars, labelled and set away in some convenient 
place in the laboratory of the museum. 
A set of plaster casts representative of the various peculiar deformities, pre¬ 
vious to the treatment, which result from disease, fractures or dislocations, would 
be of service for study and class instruction. 
A series of preparations of all the important joints of the body, especially 
