244 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
limits. The investigator, who has occasion to study with thorough-
ness any particular group of natural objects, will assuredly resort to
the great metropolitan collections; and it would be absurd for a
provincial museum to endeavour to illustrate with completeness any
natural group, unless it happen to be indigenous. All that we should
attempt in the general collection is to convey to the visitor, who uses
it educationally, some broad, though clearly-defined, notions of the
larger groups of natural bodies. This may be done, and indeed best 
done, by the display of only a limited number of typical specimens,
provided that they are selected with judgment, and displayed with
intelligence. We have no need of a multitude of objects, tending to
bewilder rather than to enlighten. Nor should we covet rare speci-
mens, which always cost much, and often teach little. Neither
should we seek pretty and attractive things, such as are to be found
in some museums, heaped together in bower-birdish fashion, where
they gratify the senses, without nourishing the intellect. Let us by all
means have rare and pretty specimens if they can claim educational
value, but not simply for sake of their rarity or their beauty. What
we really want is a moderate number of comparatively common
objects, judiciously selected, accurately classified, well displayed, and
fully illustrated, where necessary, by preparations and diagrams.
Such a collection, though small, would have far higher educational
worth, and would command greater respect from scientific authorities,
than the large heterogeneous collections of unassorted donations
which frequently form the bulk of museums of old-fashioned type.
"Unfortunately," says Professor Edward Forbes,3 "not a few country
museums are little better than raree-shows. They contain an incon-
gruous accumulation of things curious, or supposed to be curious,
heaped together in disorderly piles, or neatly spread out with
ingenious disregard of their relations. The only label attached to
nine specimens out of ten is, 'Presented by Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so;'
the object of the presentation having been either to cherish a glow of
generous self-satisfaction in the bosom of the donor, or to get rid—
under the semblance of doing a good action—of rubbish that had
once been prized, but latterly had stood in the way. Curiosities
from the South Seas, relics worthless in themselves, deriving their
interest from association with persons or localities, a few badly stuffed
quadrupeds, rather more birds, a stuffed snake, a skinned alligator,
3 "On the Educational Value of Museums." Being the Introductory Lecture at the Metro-
politan School of Science (now the Royal School of Mines) for the Session 1853-54.