132 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 



ing his mind in other directions as well. At the same time it may be 

 readily conceded that the possession of type specimens by small 

 provincial museums in out-of-the-way places, is not for the advantage 

 of science. 



But perhaps of greater importance, from a general point of view, 

 is the disposal of the exhibited collections for educational purposes. 



The now well-known idea that the exhibited portion of a museum 

 should be a collection of labels, illustrated by specimens, may be 

 carried a great deal too far — so far as to upset the fundamental idea 

 of a museum without attaining the object desired. Those who wish 

 to study any particular branch of Natural History ought to find, in a 

 well-arranged typical collection, where the specimens are provided 

 with suitable descriptive labels, much invaluable assistance — but 

 such labels can never supply the place of proper text-books, studied 

 at home as well as in the museum or laboratory. We may take an 

 example in this connection from Mr H. Bolton's set of descriptive 

 labels for the geological collection in the Peel Park Museum, Salford, 

 which are published in full in this volume. These labels are in 

 themselves very good and praiseworthy summaries of the present 

 knowledge of the geological formations in Great Britain, but to the 

 serious student who possesses a good text-book of geology they are 

 wholly unnecessary, while to those who, like most of the general 

 public, are previously entirely ignorant of the subject, they must 

 be utterly unintelligible. The use of a label is, T presume, to tell 

 what a specimen is and what it shows, and not to enter into a 

 dissertation on any general subject, that being the business of the 

 text-book and of the teacher. 



Mr Ord's plan for teaching chemistry by specimens, diagrams, 

 models, and descriptive labels, is to my mind carrying the educational 

 theory of museums to a pitch of absurdity. A collection of metals, 

 salts, &c, is no doubt a desirable feature in connection with the 

 chemical department of a school or college, but you will learn 

 chemistry only in the laboratory, and certainly not in a museum. 



But, however some of us may disagree with some of the notions 

 of individual writers of papers in the present volume, the Museums 

 Association is bound to do good by promoting the free discussion 

 of the questions at issue. E. H. Traquair. 



The Geological Department of the British Museum 



A Guide to the Fossil Invertebrates and Plants in the Department of Geology 

 and Palaeontology in the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, 

 London, SAY. 8vo. Pp. xvi. 158, with 182 text-figures. Printed by order of the 

 Trustees, 1S9". Priee, Is. ; also in two parts, price 6d. each. 



Tins is a remarkable shillingsworth, so much so that anything less 

 than effusive thanks for it smacks of ingratitude. Thanks, we are 

 sure, the public will oiler to the trustees, to Dr Henry Woodward, 

 the popular keeper of the department, and to the able set of colla- 

 borators whose help he acknowledges. Only had the book been 

 priced at five shillings or so could we have ventured on any criticism. 

 We might then have asked for a little more co-ordination between the 

 parts, a keener sense of proportion, and more careful selection of 

 illustrations. With thirty-six pages devoted to the eephalopods, the 



