ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 539 



The connection of this discourse with the Loan Collection of Scien- 

 tific Apparatus arises out of the exhibition in that collection of aids 

 to our laboratory-work. Such of you as have visited that very inter- 

 esting collection may have noticed a series of diagrams and of prepa- 

 rations illustrating the structure of a frog. Those diagrams and prepa- 

 rations have been made for the use of the students in the biological 

 laboratory. Similar diagrams and preparations, illustrating the struct- 

 ure of all the other forms of life we examine, are either made or in 

 course of preparation. Thus the student has before him, first, a pict- 

 ure of the structure he ought to see ; secondly, the structure itself 

 worked out ; and if, with these aids, and such needful explanations 

 and practical hints as a demonstrator can supply, he cannot make out 

 the facts for himself in the materials supplied to him, he had better 

 take to some other pursuit than that of biological science. 



I should have been glad to have said a few words about the use 

 of museums in the study of biology, but I see that my time is becom- 

 ing short, and I have yet another question to answer. Nevertheless, 

 I must, at the risk of wearying you, say a word or two upon that im- 

 portant subject of museums. Without doubt, there are no helps to 

 the study of biology, or rather to some branches of it, which are, or 

 may be, more important than natural-history museums ; but, in order 

 to take this place in regard to biology, they must be museums of the 

 future. The museums of the present do not do by any means so much 

 for us as they might do. I do not wish to particularize, but I dare 

 say many of you seeking knowledge, or in the laudable desire to em- 

 ploy a holiday usefully, have visited some great natural-history mu- 

 seum. You have walked through a quarter of a mile of animals well 

 stuffed, with their long names written out underneath them ; and, un- 

 less your experience is very different from that of most people, the 

 upshot of it all is that you leave that splendid pile with sore feet, 

 a bad headache, and a general idea that the animal kingdom is a 

 mighty maze without a plan. I do not think that a museum which 

 brings about this result has done all that may reasonably be expected 

 of such an institution. What is needed in a collection of natural his- 

 tory is, that it should be made as accessible and as useful as possible 

 on the one hand to the general public, and on the other to scientific 

 workers. That need is not met by constructing a sort of happy hunt- 

 ing-ground of miles of glass cases, and, under the pretense of exhib- 

 iting everything, putting the maximum amount of obstacles in the 

 way of those who wish properly to see anything. 



What the public want is easy and unhindered access to such a col- 

 lection as they can understand and appreciate ; and what the men of 

 science want is similar access to the materials of science. To this end 

 the vast mass of objects of natural history should be divided into two 

 parts one open to the public, the other to men of science, every day, 

 and all day long. The former division should exemplify all the more 



