PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 309 



profusion of hard names by which they are obscured. In most of 

 the works on Botany this fault, or affectation, is so prevalent that 

 they are utterly useless to the young or unlearned reader ; and the 

 Floras and Introductions professing to familiarize the science, require 

 vocabularies, or rather, it may be said, translations, to make them 

 intelligible and instructive. 



" The value of plain demonstration, lectures, and of familiar and 

 frequent explanations, is evident ; and, when possible, nothing 

 would tend so much to diffuse a love of geological or botanical 

 science as excursions into interesting parts of the county for the 

 purpose of examining on a large scale, or even of collecting speci- 

 mens. The proper study of ornithology, also, requires opportunities 

 of examining the habits, listening to the notes, and even watching 

 the attitudes and manners of birds : this is even an essential preli- 

 minary to putting up birds in a natural manner in a museum ; for 

 we sometimes see nothing but the plumage of a bird recognisable, 

 the body having lost its proportions, and the whole figure its proper 

 character. To each museum, where practicable, should be attached 

 a curator, or sub-curator, who would give practical lessons on the art 

 of preparing animals for the museum ; teaching the best modes of 

 skinning and stuffing quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, &c, and of pre- 

 serving insects. Many valuable specimens are lost for want of 

 knowledge of this kind. The classification of objects is sometimes 

 more clearly understood by the student from the inspection of a 

 small than of a large number of specimens ; a fortunate circum- 

 stance where the collection is limited, and one that ought not to be 

 forgotten where resources are more ample. 



" In addition to such large and expensive works as are not often 

 found in private libraries, every society should possess several copies 

 of the most approved elementary works ; as well as numerous maps 

 and sections, both ordinary and illustrative of physical and geolo- 

 gical geography. A correspondence might, of course, very usefully 

 be instituted with some of the London and provincial institutions, 

 and specimens exchanged, and facts communicated from time to 

 time. Great facility for the latter kind of intercourse is now af- 

 forded by at least two provincial publications of a highly respecta- 

 ble character : the Analyst, a considerable portion of which is as- 

 signed to country societies ; and the Naturalist, a work entirely 

 devoted to Natural History. It is gratifying to me to be able to 

 observe that both of these very useful works originated in Wor- 

 cestershire." 



Dr. Conolly's recommendation, that the county museum shall be 

 thrown open, under certain regulations, to the working classes, de- 

 serves consideration. He expresses this recommendation in these 

 terms : — " I would beg leave to say, a"lso, that nothing would afford 

 me more pleasure than to know that all such institutions, and espe- 

 cially the collections in the museums, were open, at stated times, and 

 free of expense, to the working classes of the people. If this were 

 done by tickets at the disposal of their employers or of the subscri- 

 bers, every objection to it might, I think, be removed. Many of 



