naming, classifying, and cataloguing them has been beyond the power of the curators and their assistants. During the same period, while new species have been so rapidly added to the collections, the labours of anatomists and embryologists have led to constant and important changes in classification, and as it is quite impossible to be continually re-arranging scores of thousands of specimens, it necessarily follows that the museum cases have presented to the public an old and long-exploded arrangement, often quite at variance with the knowledge of the day as to the affinities of the different groups. A still further difficulty has been the overcrowding of the cases, because it was long the custom to exhibit to the public at least one specimen of every new species acquired by the museum; and the difficulty of finding room for the ever-increasing stores has rendered nugatory all attempts to group the specimens in varied ways, so as to convey the maximum of instruction and pleasure to the visitor.

Although the evils of this method of arranging a museum had been pointed out by many writers, notably by Sir Joseph Hooker, in his address as President of the British Association, at Norwich; by myself, in an article in Macmillan's Magazine, and by the late Dr. J. E. Gray, keeper of the zoological department of the British Museum, very little radical improvement has been effected in the new building at South Kensington. It is true that many of the large mammalia are more effectually exhibited in costly glazed floor-cases, and there is a great extension of the interesting series illustrating the habits and nesting of British birds; but the great bulk of the collection still consists of the old specimens exhibited in the old way, in an interminable series of over-crowded wall-cases, while any effective presentation on a large scale of the various aspects and problems of natural history, as now understood, is almost as far off as ever.1 What may be done in this direction, and how a museum should be constructed and arranged so as to combine the maximum of utility with economy of space and of money, will be best shown by an account of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard.

Origin of the Harvard Museum.

This museum originated in 1858, by a bequest of fifty thousand dollars from Mr. Francis C. Gray of Boston to

Harvard University, for the purpose of establishing a museum of comparative zoology; while the collections it contains were begun by the late Dr. Louis Agassiz, who had been for many years professor of zoology and geology. Owing to the exertions and influence of Professor Agassiz, the legislature of Massachusetts was induced to make a grant of one hundred thousand dollars, while over seventy thousand dollars were subscribed by citizens of Boston "for the purpose of erecting a fire-proof building in

the expense of altering which would be so great that it will probably be long before it is attempted. The building itself, though fine architecturally, is quite unsuited for such an educational museum as that described in the following pages.

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Cambridge suitable to receive, to protect, and to exhibit advantageously and freely to all comers, the collection of objects in natural science brought together by Professor Louis Agassiz, with such additions as may hereafter be made thereto.”

The general plan of the building and the arrangement of the contents were carried out in accordance with Professor Agassiz's views, while the collections have been greatly increased by the results of the great Thayer expedition to Brazil, by numerous gifts from private collectors, and especially by the many dredging expeditions carried out by Professor Alexander Agassiz, at his own cost, and by extensive purchases of specimens by the same gentleman, who, since his father's death, has occupied the post of curator of the museum, and has devoted his time and large private means to the development of the institution, so as to render it a worthy monument to his father's memory.

Plan of the Building.

The portion of the building already erected is about 280 feet long by 60 feet wide, inside dimensions. This forms the northern wing of the proposed museum, which, when completed, will consist of two such wings, connected by a front of 400 feet. A central partition wall runs lengthways through the building, dividing it into rooms, each 30 feet wide and 40 feet long, except in the centre of the wing, where a projection increases the width to about 70 feet, and this is left open on one floor, forming a room 70 feet by 40 feet for the exhibition of the larger mammalia. The angles connecting the wings with the front of the building are also somewhat larger, and are occupied by laboratories, professors' rooms, staircases, &c. The museum thus consists essentially of rooms of the uniform size of 40 feet by 30 feet, and from 10 to 12 feet high, each being well lighted by a row of windows on one of its sides, forming a building of five floors above the basement. In some of the public rooms the upper floor consists of a gallery, leaving the centre of the room open for the height of two floors.

This it will be seen is very different from what is usually considered the proper style of building for a great museum, which is characterized by lofty halls, magnificent staircases, and enormous galleries; but however grand and effective architecturally these may be, they are quite unsuited to the essential purposes for which a museum is constructed. Let us consider in the first place the supply of well-lighted cases on which the efficiency of a museum so much depends. A large gallery, such as is often seen in great museums, may be 200 feet long and 50 feet wide, giving 500 feet of wall. But if this is divided into five rooms, each 40 feet wide by 50 feet long, we shall have 900 feet of wall, the greater part of which, being opposite the windows and comparatively near to them, will be far better lighted. But the vast gallery must be proportionately lofty and would suffice for two floors of moderately sized rooms, so that, after allowing for the greater number of doors and windows in the smaller rooms, we have an economy of space of at least three to one in favour of the small-room plan, with an even greater proportionate saving of expense, owing to the smaller scale of all the ornaments and fittings.

But the chief advantage of this style of building consists in the facilities which it offers for subdivision and isolation of special groups of objects, and their arrangement so as to illustrate many of the most interesting and instructive problems of natural history. The galleries of a large museum, crowded with specimens arranged in a single series throughout the whole animal kingdom, confuse and distract the observer. As Professor Alexander Agassiz well says in one of his admirable reports as professional naturalist." "The advantage, therefore, of comparatively small rooms, intended for a special purpose and for that purpose alone, will overcome at once the objections to be made to large halls where the visitor is lost in the maze of the cases, which, to him, seem placed without purpose and filled only for the sake of not leaving them empty."

Let us now see how these ideas have been carried out at the Harvard Museum.

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The first thing to be noticed is the small proportion of the whole building open to the general public, as compared with that devoted to the preservation and study of the bulk of the collections. The existing portion of the building comprises seventy-four rooms, which are apportioned thus : -Ten rooms in the basement are filled with the vast collection of specimens preserved in alcohol, four rooms being occupied by the fishes, and the mainder by reptiles, mammals, birds, crustacea, mollusca, and other invertebrata. Four rooms are devoted to the entomological department. Seventeen rooms are devoted to storage and workrooms for the various departments. Four rooms are occupied by the libraries, and there are also seven laboratories for the students, an aquarium and vivarium, together with a large lecture-room. The remaining rooms are occupied by the curator and the professors in the several departments, except the seventeen exhibition rooms, which alone are open to the public. Before proceeding to describe these it will be well to notice the admirable manner in which space is economized and work facilitated throughout the building.

In all the storage and work rooms the side next the windows is wholly occupied by rows of tables, while the collections are preserved in cases running across the room in parallel rows, from front to back, and reaching from the floor to near the ceiling, with just space enough between them to get at the specimens conveniently. These cases are quite plainly constructed to hold series of drawers or trays of a uniform size and depth, but which will admit drawers of two or three times the depth where the size of the specimens require it. The drawers run loosely in open frames so as to be freely interchangeable, and the