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SOME NEW BOOKS 



Sie William Flower's Essays 



Essays on Museums and other Subjects connected with Natural History, 



By Sir William Flower. K.C.B., D.C.L., etc. Svo, xv + 394 pp. London: Mac- 

 millan & Co., 189S. Price, 12s. net. 



Ix this volume are collected together a number of selected essays upon 

 a variety of subjects of biological interest, extending over a period of 

 years between 1870-1897, and, although all or nearly all have been pub- 

 lished previously elsewhere and so rendered accessible to students and 

 others, everyone will welcome this new issue, under one cover, of an im- 

 portant series of essays. Sir William Flower has, in these pleasantly 

 written chapters, clearly aimed at interesting and instructing the 

 uvneral reader as well as the man of science, and his happy knack of 

 putting his facts before his readers in a very clear and simple manner 

 should ensure the volume being widely read. Few people have taken 

 more pains to promote in the public at large a healthy interest in bio- 

 logical science, whether in his writings or in his administration of the 

 national Natural History Museum in Cromwell Eoad. The essays in 

 this volume are not arranged chronologically but, more conveniently, 

 according to subject, under four main headings. 



Under the first heading are a series of essays upon Museums. In 

 some respects this may be regarded as the most valuable portion of 

 the volume. When we think of the extremely important part which 

 museums play, and still more might play, in the advancement and 

 dissemination of scientific knowledge, suggestions as to their proper 

 administration from so distinguished an authority, cannot but carry 

 great weight, and it is to be hoped that the valuable hints which 

 abound in these essays may strike home, and be the means of 

 improving the museums, not only of this country but also abroad. It 

 is only within recent years that museum administrators have 

 awakened to a sense of their responsibilities, and the awakening has 

 even now not been general. In these chapters are many eminently 

 practical suggestions as to the proper aims of museums and the methods 

 which should be adopted. The suggested design of a one-storied 

 building for a national natural history museum is at once simple and 

 practical, though it entails as a sine qua non a liberal allowance of 

 ground space. The author's remarks relating to local museums and 

 school museums should be seriously considered by the authorities at 

 the head of such institutions. Were his advice followed the minor 

 museums would become what so few are now, highly instructive — 

 little educational centres, in fact. Each county museum might, by 

 special attention to the systematic collection of objects of local 

 interest, become of real value to specialists as well as to the casual 



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