Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/217

Rh sense. Therefore, the curator with a plan, and with a little tact, will say "My dear Mæcænas! This is a charming thing you offer; I only wish we could accept it. But you will understand at once that it does not fall within the scheme drawn up for our museum and sanctioned by the authorities [here he will drag in the most imposing authorities at his command]. On the other hand, there are many sad gaps in our collection, and there is now in the market a most desirable rarity, which I should rejoice to have in our museum with your name attached. When you see it you will agree that it will bear perpetual witness to your discrimination no less than to your generosity." But it is possible that those 'authorities,' on whom the curator ought to rely, may themselves be the difficulty. Then the curator must stiffen his back and, with as much dignity as is politic, say "Gentlemen, you have yourselves appointed me to a position of trust, and it is my duty towards you and the public to advise you on these matters. If you dispute my competence, you stultify your own action."

This need for keeping to a plan in the acquisition of material applies to all museums, whatever be the nature of their contents and whichever function they profess to fulfil. But chiefly does it apply to the smaller museums and to those of limited scope, since it is the best way, I will not say to prevent overcrowding, but at least to put off that evil day. And among such museums it applies most forcibly to those that make their chief appeal to the great public.

But to return to the investigators. What methods of preservation are the most favorable to their studies? Preservation includes both the technical processes by which objects are saved from decay and the disposition or storage of the objects within the museum. It is with the latter division of the subject that I am now concerned. The methods adopted must be such as to permit readiness of access to the specimens, readiness of comparison and readiness of handling. The investigator must be afforded quiet, light, space, and facilities for using such apparatus as may be required for his study, such as books, microscopes, measures, brushes, reagents, and the materials for drawing, painting and writing. Clearly the exhibition of the specimens in galleries visited all day long by the public is opposed to every one of these wants. They are best met by keeping the specimens, when their size and constitution admit, in a series of interchangeable drawers. Such drawers can readily be removed to a private workroom for study, and may, while there, be stacked in a spare cabinet body kept for the purpose. The specimens may then be examined and replaced without disturbance of their order, and with the least possible trouble to the museum-staff.

But in almost all departments of a museum we are met by objects