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Permission would no doubt be accorded, in most cases, to theworker who wished to examine it, but his examination, in defaultof good light and space, would be attended with difficulty.These collections are mainly due to the activity of the membersof the local natural history societies. The museum being anofficial institution, and being usually officered by one or morepersons of eminence in science, has succeeded in gatheringaround it those living in the district who are given to scientificresearch. As a rule, the societies, though numerous, are weak,and they are rarely in possession of sufficient funds to enablethem to purchase either the books or the specimens which,removed as they are from the larger towns, they require ; andvery few indeed are able to publish their own transactions.Many of their members, however, do much good work, and theirbest papers find their way to the quarterly journal of theSchweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, which is the officialorgan (I believe) of the natural history societies of German Switzerland . In 1876 the following cantons had their ownnatural history societies:—Aargau , B§,le, Berne, Freiburg ,St Gallen , Geneva, Graubiinden, Waadt, Lucerne , Neuch&tel,Schaffhausen , Solothurn , Thurgau , and Zurich . The museumsof the cantonal schools of Solothurn , Pruntrut , Glarus , andBerne are perhaps the best worth visiting. The collectionsof the gymnasium of Aarau , too, are important. The districtschools ( Bezirlcsschulen ), the advanced schools ( Fortbildungs-schulen), and the secondary schools ( Secundarschulen ) have oftenvery good collections.
2. The Museums supported by the State and Large Tovms .—The museums in the larger towns are generally connected withthe universities, and are officered for the most part by theprofessorial staff. There is a director and several curators.■The latter are attached to particular departments, of which theymake a specialty. Their salaries are low, averaging perhaps£80 per annum ; but they usually hold at the same time morelucrative professorial or other appointments.
Berne has a good mineralogical collection. Bale is rich inKeuper plants, Schaffhausen in Jurassic fossils, and NeucMtelhas a splendid series of Lower Cretaceous forms.
It would be obviously inexpedient to go very fully into thearrangements adopted at all of the larger museums. It will beenough to mention two or three of those which, from theexcellence of their arrangements, or from the extent and valueof their collections, deserve more extended remark.
Zurich . —The museums of Zurich rank with the best in thecountry. As a city, Zurich is the centre of the intellectualactivity of German Switzerland , and its public museums are ofan importance commensurate with that fact. None of the