596 Proceedings. 



medley they formed. There are such museums still in many a small 

 European town. As the collections increased and became unmanageable, 

 subdivision forced itself upon the attention, and the stones were separated 

 from the arms, the works of art from the anatomical specimens. The 

 improvement was obvious, but the museum still remained a mere collection 

 of curiosities. After a time scientific classitication entered the field, and the 

 objects were arranged according to some system, elaborated by those who 

 had paid attention to the special subject. It then became possible for the 

 visitor who possessed the key to the classification to find his way amongst 

 the collections, and even to observe instances of similarity or dissimilarity 

 with reasonable facility ; to those, however, who were not furnished with 

 the key, the new arrangement offered no more and no better lessons than 

 the old. To this day the great majority of museums remain at this stage, 

 and they do so because those who are responsible for their management are 

 conversant with the meaning of the classification ; to them all seems clear 

 enough, and they do not, and perhaps cannot, place themselves in the i^osi- 

 tion of those who come to see the collections. This stage of improvement 

 is, in my opinion, by no means the last which may be reached. 



It must be remembered that a Natural History Museum is intended to 

 be of use to two classes of individuals. The one class numbers, unhappily, 

 but few persons ; these are the mature students of Biological Science, who 

 are enabled by virtue of their wide knowledge to read between the lines and 

 to supply all those thoughts which are suggested by the collection to them, 

 and to them only. If a museum were intended solely for the use of such 

 persons, it would be exceedingly unwise to reject the ordinary classification ; 

 indeed, I do not advocate its rejection in any case, but simply the addition 

 of another classification more suited to the second class of persons who 

 make use of the institution. This class includes the great majority of our 

 population — persons who are novices in the subject, and are quite unable to 

 appreciate the meaning of the classification, or, indeed, to gather from it 

 aught but the most confused impressions. 



You are not all of you, any more than myself, familiar with all the 

 details of biology, and I may therefore a2)peal to you to place yourselves in 

 the position of the ordinary visitor to a museum, to look briefly over a col- 

 lection of birds, of minerals, or of fossils, and then to sum up and estimate 

 the value of the information you have accjuired. You will then feel, if you 

 do not already, that the collection fails in its chief object, if that object be, 

 as I maintain that it is, to teach the masses ot the population something 

 really valuable about the world we live in. 



The ordinary museum is capable of suggesting thoughts only to those 

 who have already mastered those thoughts. 



If you know so much of science as to be unable to regard the collection 

 from this point of view, and if you are doubtful of the justice of my asser- 

 tions, then follow discreetly, but closely, some party of visitors, and listen 

 to their remarks — their " Isn't that a pretty colour?" and their " Dear me, 

 what a funny tail !" Or perhaps you will follow some more educated party, 

 and will then be rejoiced to hear that the word " Ceylon" on a label calls 

 up memories of a friend who once visited that country, or that in the 

 opinion of the visitor certain feathers would make remarkably good salmon 

 flies. In any case you will come away less confident that the heavy expen- 

 diture incurred in maintaining the Museum is fully justified. 



Suppose, now, that we attempt a new classification — that we seek to 

 show to the uneducated that there arc relations, points of similarity and of 

 dissimilarity, between objects, that we endeavour to bring these points into 

 prominence, instead of leaving them to be clumsily extricated by those who 

 are unaccustomed to the ideas involved ; and what do you think will be the 

 result ? Why, that our museum, which was dead, will become alive, will 

 rise, as it were, from the grave to tell its myriad stories ; while every case 

 will teem with suggestions of profound thought, which the most careless 

 and the most ignorant will be unable to avoid having thrust upon them. 



