MUSEUMS AS EDUCATIONAL ADJUNCTS 
253 
continually kept up to his work by the superior governing body, who find it a 
much easier task to detect faults than they would to remedy them themselves.” 
(25.) 
If the “ superior governing body ” be qualified to act the part of a judicious 
fault-finder, there is no doubt but that this plan would work well, and pre¬ 
vent the needless expenditure of money and valuable time in the gathering of 
miscellaneous and “incoherent medleys,” for which some curators seem to nave a 
craving. It would also prevent one department of a museum from being devel¬ 
oped to the detriment of all others, just because some one happened to take a 
little more interest in that subject than any other. A great point in museum 
management is to have its affairs conducted in a business-like manner, and to 
avoid the dependence of any one department upon the chance enthusiasm of indi¬ 
viduals. 
VII. — Conservator of a museum. 
There are certain duties which a curator should perform and certain qualifica¬ 
tions which he should possess. “A curator has not merely to catalogue and ar¬ 
range, but he is to master thoroughly the collections under his charge, and in this 
respect he differs essentially from a librarian.” (Dawkins, 28.) 
A correspondent of Nature writes : . 
“ A specialist, though an indispensable cultivator of science, is a very bad 
museum curator. A curator should be like a newspaper editor, a man of general 
knowledge and culture. Unlike an editor, he should belong to no party, but be 
possessed of catholic sympathies in science and art; ready to accept and use the 
assistance of specialists, in a way that will subordinate all departments to one 
harmonious general plan. Further, he should possess an experimental knowledge 
of the routine duties of a museum, such as can only be obtained by training or 
apprenticeship in a well-organized museum.” (29.) 
A curator should and can be the life of a museum. This fact is well illus¬ 
trated in the case of “two museums originally supported by the same grant of 
money. One has remained stationary for years, whilst the director of the other, 
making the best use of his independent position, has known how to raise the value 
of his museum as a purely scientific and instructive institution, thus establishing 
claims for additional assistance, which could not be neglected by the Govern¬ 
ment.” (26.) 
The prosperity of museums, their usefulness and the progress of their growth, 
other things being equal, will be in direct proportion to the ability of their curators 
and the earnestness with which they carry on their work. 
VIII. — Collecting specimens. 
Under this heading some sagacious remarks have been made by Prof. 
Wilder, in a letter relating to the details of collecting natural history specimens, 
by the Woodruff Scientific Expedition Around the World. They are as follows : 
“ We shall be tempted to collect indiscriminately and profusely, to accumu¬ 
late skins and skeletons because easily prepared, to pack entire animals closely in 
alcohol, and defer making anatomical preparations until we get home. Now, the 
real value of a collection depends not upon its size , but upon its quality; and its 
quality depends directly upon the ability and disposition of the collector to dis¬ 
criminate between the many things that may be done, and the comparatively few 
things which should be done.” (60.) 
