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54 METHODS UP SOClAL REFORM.
place from time to time about the British Mnseum, which
forme the AJpha, if not the Omega, of this subject. Whatever
has been written about Museums centres upon the great
national institution in Bloombury. The Blue Book literatnro
is abundant, but naturally unknown to the public. The
evidence taken before the recent Royal Commission on Scientific
Instruction and the advancement of Science, contains D
great deal of information bearing upon Museum economy,
including the opinions of the chief o5cers of the British
Mueenm; but littlo or nothing bearing on the subject wag
embodied in tho reports of the Commission.
I do not propose in this article to boil down the voluminous
contents of Blue Books, but, depending chiefly upon my own
memory of many museums and exhibitions which I have visited
from time to time, to endeavour to arrive at some conception
of the purp08e8, or rather the many purposes, which should bo
set before us in creating public collections of the kind, and the
meam by which those purposes may be most readily attained.
Although the subject has hardly received any attent.ion as
yet, I believe it is possible to show on psychologid or other
saientifio grounds that much which has been done in tho
formation of Museums is fundamentally mistaken. In other
08988 it is more by good luck than good management that a
favourablo result hes been attained. In any w e a comparison
of tbe purposes and achievements of Museums must
be instructive.
Acmrding to its etymology the name Muoeum means a
temple or haunt of the Muses, and any place appropriated to
the cultivation of learning, music, pictorial art, or science
might be appropriately called a Museum. On the Continent
they &ill use Mu& in a rather wider sen88 than we in England
0188 Museum; but it ia remarkable that, although the art of
delighting by sound haa long been called emphatically Mu&,
we mver apply the name Museum to a Concert Hall. In this
country we have specialised the word BO much that we usually
ditingaish Mnseams from libraries, picture galleries and musio
balls, reserving the name for collections and displays of scientific
specimens, or concrete artistic objects and cariosities of